Wutthichai Boonrat. Dosimetry for small MLC radiation field from various detectors compared with monte carlo simulations. Master's Degree(Medical Physics ). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2009.
Dosimetry for small MLC radiation field from various detectors compared with monte carlo simulations
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to investigate the capability of detectors for
small field size measurement compared with Monte Carlo simulations. The 10 MV
photon beam from Varian Clinac 23EX linear accelerator was simulated by EGSnrc
(BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc) code. The matching between measured and simulated data
of 30×30 cm2 field was used to estimate the initial electron parameters. The mean
energy and radial intensity distribution (FWHM) were adjusted until the best matched
result was achieved. The suitable parameters were 10.2 MeV in mean energy and 0.8
mm in FWHM. They were applied to small field simulations. Three different
detectors, photon diode, stereotactic diode and 0.015 cm3 ion chamber were used to
measure percentage depth dose (PDDs). The same set of detectors and XV film were
used in profile measurements. The output factors were measured with XV film,
0.6 cm3 and 0.015 cm3 ion chamber. Square field sizes ranging from 1 to 5 cm2 were
observed. Good agreement of all detectors and simulations was found in PDD with
less than 1.5% difference. For all detectors, except film, good matching of profiles
was detected with simulation. For the measurement of output factors, the percent
difference compared with simulation was less than 1.5% for 0.015 cm3 ion chamber in
all field sizes. With 0.6 cm3 ion chamber, the acceptable deviation found for field size
was larger than 3×3 cm2. The film measurements had more than 2 % difference in all
range of fields. The results of this study reveal that the volume averaging effect and
water equivalence property of detector should be considered for small field output
factor measurements. The Monte Carlo simulation is a good selection to predict the
dose distribution in small field conditions