Spectral µCT with an energy resolving and interpolating pixel detector.

A main challenge in x-ray µCT with laboratory radiation derives from the broad spectral content, which in contrast to monochromatic synchrotron radiation gives rise to reconstruction artifacts and impedes quantitative reconstruction. Due to the low spectral brightness of these sources, monochromatization is unfavorable and parallel recording of a broad bandpath is practically indispensable. While conventional CT sums up all spectral components into a single detector value, spectral CT discriminates the data in several spectral bins. Here we show that a new generation of charge integrating and interpolating pixel detectors is ideally suited to implement spectral CT with a resolution in the range of 10 µm. We find that the information contained in several photon energy bins largely facilitates automated classification of materials, as demonstrated for of a mouse cochlea. Bones, soft tissues, background and metal implant materials are discriminated automatically. Importantly, this includes taking a better account of phase contrast effects, based on tailoring reconstruction parameters to specific energy bins.

ASSESSING THE CONTRIBUTION OF CROSS-SECTIONS TO THE UNCERTAINTY OF MONTE CARLO CALCULATIONS IN MICRO- AND NANODOSIMETRY.

Within EURADOS Working Group 6 'Computational Dosimetry', the micro and nanodosimetry task group 6.2 has recently conducted a Monte Carlo (MC) exercise open to participants around the world. The aim of this exercise is to quantify the contribution to the uncertainty of micro and nanodosimetric simulation results arising from the use of different electron-impact cross-sections, and hence physical models, employed by different MC codes (GEANT4-DNA, PENELOPE, MCNP6, FLUKA, NASIC and PHITS). Comparison of the participants' simulation results for both micro and nanodosimetric quantities using different MC codes was the first step of the exercise. The deviation between results is due to different cross-sections but also different tracking methods and particle transport cut-off energies. The second step of the exercise will involve using identical cross-section datasets to account only for the other variations in the first step, thus enabling the determination of the uncertainty contribution due to different cross-sections. This paper presents a comparison of the MC simulation results obtained in the first part of the exercise. For the microdosimetric simulations, particularly in the configuration where the electron source is contained within the micrometric target, the choice of MC code has a small influence on the results. For the nanodosimetric results, on the other hand, the mean ionisation cluster size distribution (ICSD) was sensitive to the physical models used in the MC codes. The ICSD was therefore chosen to study the influence of different cross-section data on the uncertainty of simulation results.

SOI microdosimetry and modified MKM for evaluation of relative biological effectiveness for a passive proton therapy radiation field.

With more patients receiving external beam radiation therapy with protons, it becomes increasingly important to refine the clinical understanding of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for dose delivered during treatment. Treatment planning systems used in clinics typically implement a constant RBE of 1.1 for proton fields irrespective of their highly heterogeneous linear energy transfer (LET). Quality assurance tools that can measure beam characteristics and quantify or be indicative of biological outcomes become necessary in the transition towards more sophisticated RBE weighted treatment planning and for verification of the Monte Carlo and analytical based models they use. In this study the RBE for the CHO-K1 cell line in a passively delivered clinical proton spread out Bragg peak (SOBP) is determined both in vitro and using a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) microdosimetry method paired with the modified microdosimetric kinetic model. The RBE along the central axis of a SOBP with 2 Gy delivered at the middle of the treatment field was found to vary between 1.11-1.98 and the RBE for 10% cell survival between 1.07-1.58 with a 250 kVp x-ray reference radiation and between 1.19-2.34 and 0.95-1.41, respectively, for a Co60 reference. Good agreement was found between RBE values calculated from the SOI-microdosimetry-MKM approach and in vitro. A strong correlation between proton lineal energy and RBE was observed particularly in the distal end and falloff of the SOBP.

Miniaturized microdosimeters as LET monitors: First comparison of calculated and experimental data performed at the 62 MeV/u 12C beam of INFN-LNS with four different detectors.

PURPOSE: The aim of this paper is to investigate the limits of LET monitoring of therapeutic carbon ion beams with miniaturized microdosimetric detectors. METHODS: Four different miniaturized microdosimeters have been used at the 62 MeV/u 12C beam of INFN Southern National Laboratory (LNS) of Catania for this purpose, i.e. a mini-TEPC and a GEM-microdosimeter, both filled with propane gas, and a silicon and a diamond microdosimeter. The y-D (dose-mean lineal energy) values, measured at different depths in a PMMA phantom, have been compared withLET¯D (dose-mean LET) values in water, calculated at the same water-equivalent depth with a Monte Carlo simulation setup based on the GEANT4 toolkit. RESULTS: In these first measurements, no detector was found to be significantly better than the others as a LET monitor. The y-D relative standard deviation has been assessed to be 13% for all the detectors. On average, the ratio between y-D and LET¯D values is 0.9 ±â€¯0.3, spanning from 0.73 ±â€¯0.08 (in the proximal edge and Bragg peak region) to 1.1 ±â€¯0.3 at the distal edge. CONCLUSIONS: All the four microdosimeters are able to monitor the dose-mean LET with the 11% precision up to the distal edge. In the distal edge region, the ratio of y-D to LET¯D changes. Such variability is possibly due to a dependence of the detector response on depth, since the particle mean-path length inside the detectors can vary, especially in the distal edge region.

MICRODOSIMETRIC MEASUREMENT OF SECONDARY RADIATION IN THE PASSIVE SCATTERED PROTON THERAPY ROOM OF iTHEMBA LABS USING A TISSUE-EQUIVALENT PROPORTIONAL COUNTER.

Measurements of the dose equivalent at different distances from the isocenter of the proton therapy center at iThemba LABS were previously performed with a tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC). These measurements showed that the scattered radiation levels were one or two orders of magnitude higher in comparison to other passive scattering delivery systems. In order to reduce these radiation levels, additional shielding was installed shortly after the measurements were done. Therefore, the aim of this work is to quantify and assess the reduction of the secondary doses delivered in the proton therapy room at iThemba LABS after the installation of the additional shielding. This has been performed by measuring microdosimetric spectra with a TEPC at 11 locations around the isocenter when a clinical modulated beam of 200 MeV proton was impinging onto a water phantom placed at the isocenter.

MICRODOSIMETRIC STUDY AT THE CNAO ACTIVE-SCANNING CARBON-ION BEAM.

The Italian National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) has been treating patients since 2011 with carbon-ion beams using the active-scanning modality. In such irradiation modality, the beam spot, which scans the treatment area, is characterised by very high particle-fluence rates (more than 105 s-1 mm-2). Moreover, the Bragg-peak is only ~1 mm-FWHM. Commercial tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPC), like the Far West Technologies LET-½, are large, hence they have limited capability to measure at high counting fluence rates. In this study we have used two home-made detectors, a mini-TEPC 0.81 mm2 in sensitive area and a silicon telescope 0.125 mm2 in sensitive area, to perform microdosimetric measurements in the therapeutic carbon-ion beam of CNAO. A monoenergetic carbon-ion beam of 189.5 ± 0.3 MeV/u scanning a 3 × 3 cm2 area has been used. Spectral differences are visible in the low y-value region, but the mean microdosimetric values, measured with the two detectors, result to be pretty consistent, as well as the microdosimetric spectra in the high y-value region.

MICRODOSIMETRIC SIMULATIONS OF CARBON IONS USING THE MONTE CARLO CODE FLUKA.

Therapeutic carbon ion beams produce a complex and variable radiation field that changes along the penetration depth due to the high density of energy loss along the particle track together with the secondary particles produced by nuclear fragmentation reactions. An accurate physical characterisation of such complex mixed-radiation fields can be performed by measuring microdosimetric spectra with mini tissue-equivalent proportional counters (mini-TEPCs), which are one of the most accurate devices used in experimental microdosimetry. Numerical calculations with Monte Carlo codes such as FLUKA can be used to supplement experimental microdosimetric measurements performed with TEPCs, but the nuclear cross sections and fragmentation models need to be benchmarked with experimental data for different energies and scenarios. The aim of this work is to compare experimental carbon microdosimetric data measured with the mini TEPC with calculated microdosimetry spectra obtained with FLUKA for 12C ions of 189.5 MeV/u in the Bragg peak region.

Equivalence of pure propane and propane TE gases for microdosimetric measurements.

A tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) simulates micrometric volumes of tissue if the energy deposited in the counter cavity is the same as that in the tissue volume. Nevertheless, a TEPC measures only the ionisations created in the gas, which are later converted into imparted energy. Therefore, the equivalence of the simulated diameter (Dρ) in two gases should be based on the equality of the mean number of ions pairs in the gas rather than on the imparted energy. Propane-based tissue-equivalent gas is the most commonly used gas mixture at present, but it has the drawback that its composition may change with time. From this point of view, the use of pure propane offers practical advantages: higher gas gain and longer stability. In this work, microdosimetric measurements performed with pure propane, at site sizes 0.05 mg cm(-2) ≤ Dρ ≤ 0.3 mg cm(-2), demonstrate that the response of a propane-filled detector in gamma and in neutron fields is almost the same if an appropriate gas density is used.

EuTEPC: measurements in gamma and neutron fields.

The EuTEPC (European TEPC) is a novel spherical tissue-equivalent gas-proportional single-wire counter that has been designed and constructed at the National Laboratories of Legnaro of Italian Nuclear Physics Institute in collaboration with the University of Padova, the DLR (German Aerospace Centre) and Austrian Institute of Technology. Its peculiarity is the spherical A-150 cathode wall which is sub-divided in nine sectors. Each sector is properly and differently biased, in order to obtain a uniform electric field along the anode wire, for reaching a good isotropic response and energy resolution. The counter components can be easily replaced and reassembled including the anode wire. The counter could be used as a monitor area inside the International Space Station. This paper describes first microdosimetric measurements in (60)Co, (137)Cs and (241)Am-Be(α,n) gamma and neutron fields performed with the EuTEPC filled with pure propane gas. Measurements have been performed simulating sites sizes, ranging from 0.05 up to 0.25 mg cm(-2) in pure propane, which correspond from 0.7 up to 3.3 µm equivalent site sizes in propane-TE gas. Comparisons with some literature spectra are presented.

Lineal energy calibration of a spherical TEPC.

Tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs) do not always allow built-in calibration alpha-particle sources, and the lineal energy calibration of these counters must be performed with an external radiation able to penetrate the detector walls. The irradiation field can be used for calibration if a particular marker point of known lineal energy is identified in the measured spectrum. This point is often identified with the proton edge, which corresponds to the maximum energy deposited by protons in the given volume. If the proton edge cannot be identified precisely in the measured spectrum, a gamma source can be used instead, identifying the maximum lineal energy due to electrons (e-edge). The technique was already described and applied for cylindrical TEPCs, allowing a calibration with an overall uncertainty smaller than 5 % (Conte et al. Lineal energy calibration of mini tissue equivalent gas-proportional counters (TEPC). AIP Conf. Proc. 1530, 171-178 (2013)). In the present work, this study was repeated for spherical detectors. First a marker point was identified in the microdosimetric spectrum of a (137)Cs gamma source, then a precise value of lineal energy was assigned to it. Gas pressures were varied to simulate diameters from 0.5 and 3 µm at density 1 g cm(-3). A simple power equation is given for allowing calibration of TEPCs filled with C3H8-TE gas at different pressures, using an external (137)Cs gamma source.

Influence of the physical data to calibrate TEPCs.

Tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs) measure distributions of ionisations, produced in the gas cavity by the radiation field which are afterwards converted into distributions of energy imparted by applying a calibration factor. To calibrate the pulse-height spectra, first, a marker point must be identified in the measured spectrum. Then, an accurate value of lineal energy must be assigned to this marker. A common marker that is often used for calibration is the so-called proton-edge (p-edge). It is a distinctive feature of a proton or neutron spectrum which corresponds to the maximum amount of energy that a proton can deposit in the active volume of the detector. A precise method to identify the marker point was applied to identify the p-edge with an uncertainty below 1 %. To evaluate the final uncertainty of the calibration, the uncertainty of the energy value assigned to the p-edge must also be considered. This value can be evaluated using different energy-range tables. This study investigates how the choice of different input databases for calibration purposes influences the calibration. The effect of three different frequently used sets of input data was analysed for pure propane gas and for propane-TE gas mixture.

Microdosimetric measurements in the thermal neutron irradiation facility of LENA reactor.

A twin TEPC with electric-field guard tubes has been constructed to be used to characterize the BNCT field of the irradiation facility of LENA reactor. One of the two mini TEPC was doped with 50ppm of (10)B in order to simulate the BNC events occurring in BNCT. By properly processing the two microdosimetric spectra, the gamma, neutron and BNC spectral components can be derived with good precision (~6%). However, direct measurements of (10)B in some doped plastic samples, which were used for constructing the cathode walls, point out the scarce accuracy of the nominal (10)B concentration value. The influence of the Boral(®) door, which closes the irradiation channel, has been measured. The gamma dose increases significantly (+51%) when the Boral(®) door is closed. The crypt-cell-regeneration weighting function has been used to measure the quality, namely the RBEµ value, of the radiation field in different conditions. The measured RBEµ values are only partially consistent with the RBE values of other BNCT facilities.

TEPC gas gain measurements in propane.

Knowledge of the gas gain is important to optimise the design and the operating characteristics of tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs), especially for simulated sites smaller than 1 µm. TEPC area monitors of the order of centimetres must operate at very low gas pressure to simulate micrometric volumes, consequently the Townsend theory cannot be applied: effects related to the presence of an electric-field gradient become important and must be considered. A detailed description of the electron avalanche formation is complex, but in most practical cases an analytical formula can be used. The so-called gradient-field model includes three characteristic constants of the counting gas, which were already experimentally determined for propane-tissue equivalent (TE) and dimethyl ether (DME) gases. The aim of this work is to measure the gas-dependent parameters for propane gas. Preliminary results obtained with a spherical TEPC are presented.

Monte Carlo tools to supplement experimental microdosimetric spectra.

Tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs) are widely used in experimental microdosimetry for characterising the radiation quality in radiation protection and radiation therapy environments. Generally, TEPCs are filled with tissue-equivalent gas mixtures, at low gas pressure, to simulate tissue site sizes similar to the cell nucleus (1 or 2 µm). The TEPC response using Monte Carlo (MC) codes can be applied to supplement experimental measurements. Most of general-purpose MC codes currently available recourse to the condensed-history approach to model the electron transport and do not transport low-energy electrons (<1 keV), which can lead to systematic errors, especially in thin layers and in gas-condensed medium interfaces. In this work, a comparison between experimental microdosimetric spectra of (60)Co and (137)Cs radiation at different simulated sizes (from 1.0 to 3.0 µm) in pure propane versus simulated spectra obtained with two general-purpose codes FLUKA and PENELOPE, which include a detailed simulation of electron-photon transport in arbitrary materials, including gases, is presented.