vol. 5 6/2016 Inżynier i Fizyk Medyczny
322
artykuł
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article
radioterapia
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radiotherapy
treatment. It means that user can very quickly verify number
and time schedule of the pulses. The system appeared extre-
mely reliable. It is not depended on a number of counts and
more than one consecutive patients treatments can be recor-
ded. All recorded data is exportable to Excel.
The hardware is very simple and easy to install and integrate
with network as well as it is very simple to use.
DISADVANTAGES
As an each technical solution, themonitoring systemhas some di-
sadvantages. The installed system has a large number configura-
ble parameters before an each treatment. It is a time consuming
process. To avoid saturation of the detector, it has to be placed
far away from the patient. It was a reason of placing the detector
in the opposite corner next to the celling in the treatment rom.
That setup was also beneficial in terms of avoiding additional
shielding of the probe. The sampling frequency limited to 1 min.
Finally, that technical limit didn’t cause any problems in an imple-
mentation of the doserate monitor to the clinical practice. But
it may not be suitable for treatment pulse width less than 1 min
long (generally not an issue in our clinical practice). The system
requires a very careful verification of setting parameter to local
GMT. The dosemeter is synchronised to PC time what can inter-
fere with pulse recording times. It can cause a disruption of pulse
recording. It is very important to verify a number of the recorded
pulses. The sync only happens midnight and the system is sen-
sitive on that disruption when time zone is changed to GMT/BST.
CONCLUSION
The monitoring Berthold system appaered extremely reliable
for independently monitoring of delivery of PDR treatment
remotely from a PC. It appeared Easy to install, setup, imple-
ment and use. The system requires a very little maintenance and
calibration process. It adds confidence to the radiation delive-
ry system and patient treatment. The future work is to Intro-
duce a warning system when expected pulses not detected or
unexpected pulses happened.
REFERENCES
1.
2.
gec-estro/handbook-of-brachytherapy/e-4-23072002-radio-
biology-print_proc.pdf
3.
/
4.
-
tion_files/BFCO(09)1_Cervix.pdf
5.
-
pelementation_of_an_independent_radiation_detector_acti-
vely_monitoring_radiation_pulses_during_PDR_pulse_dose_
rate_gyneacological_traeatment
6.
.
axd?AssetID=75031
Fig. 8
. The GM-probe – the probe installed in the treatment room
Source: [4].
Fig. 9
. The attempt of the recorded pulses
Source: [4].
