On the validity of 3D polymer gel dosimetry: III. MRI-related error sources
- 6 December 2012
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Physics in Medicine & Biology
- Vol. 58 (1), 63-85
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-9155/58/1/63
Abstract
In MRI (PAGAT) polymer gel dosimetry, there exists some controversy on the validity of 3D dose verifications of clinical treatments. The relative contribution of important sources of uncertainty in MR scanning to the overall accuracy and precision of 3D MRI polymer gel dosimetry is quantified in this study. The performance in terms of signal-to-noise and imaging artefacts was evaluated on three different MR scanners (two 1.5 T and a 3 T scanner). These include: (1) B₀-field inhomogeneity, (2) B₁-field inhomogeneity, (3) dielectric effects (losses and standing waves) and (4) temperature inhomogeneity during scanning. B₀-field inhomogeneities that amount to maximum 5 ppm result in dose deviations of up to 4.3% and deformations of up to 5 pixels. Compensation methods are proposed. B₁-field inhomogeneities were found to induce R₂ variations in large anthropomorphic phantoms both at 1.5 and 3 T. At 1.5 T these effects are mainly caused by the coil geometry resulting in dose deviations of up to 25%. After the correction of the R₂ maps using a heuristic flip angle-R₂ relation, these dose deviations are reduced to 2.4%. At 3 T, the dielectric properties of the gel phantoms are shown to strongly influence B₁-field homogeneity, hence R₂ homogeneity, especially of large anthropomorphic phantoms. The low electrical conductivity of polymer gel dosimeters induces standing wave patterns resulting in dose deviations up to 50%. Increasing the conductivity of the gel by adding NaCl reduces the dose deviation to 25% after which the post-processing is successful in reducing the remaining inhomogeneities caused by the coil geometry to within 2.4%. The measurements are supported by computational modelling of the B₁-field. Finally, temperature fluctuations of 1 °C frequently encountered in clinical MRI scanners result in dose deviations up to 15%. It is illustrated that with adequate temperature stabilization, the dose uncertainty is reduced to within 2.58%.This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
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