Comparative study of sub-second temporal resolution 4D-MRI and 4D-CT for target motion assessment in a phantom model

To develop and investigate the feasibility of sub-second temporal resolution volumetric T1-weighted four-dimensional (4D-) MRI in comparison with 4D-CT for respiratory-correlated motion assessment using an MRI/CT-compatible phantom. Sub-second high temporal resolution (0.5 s) gradient-echo T1-weighted 4D-MRI was developed using a volumetric acquisition scheme with compressed sensing. An MRI/CT-compatible motion phantom (simulated liver tumor) with three sinusoidal movements of amplitudes and two respiratory patterns was introduced and imaged with 4D-MRI and 4D-CT to investigate the geometric accuracy of the target movement. The geometric accuracy, including centroid position, volume, similarity index of dice similarity coefficient (DSC), and Hausdorff distance (HD), was systematically evaluated. Proposed 4D-MRI achieved a similar geometric accuracy compared with 4D-CT regarding the centroid position, volume, and similarity index. The observed position differences of the absolute average centroid were within 0.08 cm in 4D-MRI and 0.03 cm in 4D-CT, less than the 1-pixel resolution for each modality. The observed volume difference in 4D-MRI/4D-CT was within 0.73 cm3 (4.5%)/0.29 cm3 (2.1%) for a large target and 0.06 cm3 (11.3%)/0.04 cm3 (11.6%) for a small target. The observed DSC values for 4D-MRI/4D-CT were at least 0.93/0.95 for the large target and 0.83/0.84 for the small target. The maximum HD values were 0.25 cm/0.31 cm for the large target and 0.21 cm/0.15 cm for the small target. Although 4D-CT potentially exhibit superior numerical accuracy in phantom studies, the proposed high temporal resolution 4D-MRI demonstrates sub-millimetre geometric accuracy comparable to that of 4D-CT. These findings suggest that the 4D-MRI technique is a viable option for characterizing motion and generating phase-dependent internal target volumes within the realm of radiotherapy.

Multi-Institutional Study of End-to-End Dose Delivery Quality Assurance Testing for Image-Guided Brachytherapy Using a Gel Dosimeter

PURPOSE

To quantify dose delivery errors for high-dose-rate image-guided brachytherapy (HDR-IGBT) using an independent end-to-end dose delivery quality assurance test at multiple institutions. The novelty of our study is that this is the first multi-institutional end-to-end dose delivery study in the world.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The postal audit used a polymer gel dosimeter in a cylindrical acrylic container for the afterloading system. Image acquisition using computed tomography, treatment planning, and irradiation were performed at each institution. Dose distribution comparison between the plan and gel measurement was performed. The percentage of pixels satisfying the absolute-dose gamma criterion was reviewed.

RESULTS

Thirty-five institutions participated in this study. The dose uncertainty was 3.6% ± 2.3% (mean ± 1.96σ). The geometric uncertainty with a coverage factor of k = 2 was 3.5 mm. The tolerance level was set to the gamma passing rate of 95% with the agreement criterion of 5% (global)/3 mm, which was determined from the uncertainty estimation. The percentage of pixels satisfying the gamma criterion was 90.4% ± 32.2% (mean ± 1.96σ). Sixty-six percent (23/35) of the institutions passed the verification. Of the institutions that failed the verification, 75% (9/12) had incorrect inputs of the offset between the catheter tip and indexer length in treatment planning and 17% (2/12) had incorrect catheter reconstruction in treatment planning.

CONCLUSIONS

The methodology should be useful for comprehensively checking the accuracy of HDR-IGBT dose delivery and credentialing clinical studies. The results of our study highlight the high risk of large source positional errors while delivering dose for HDR-IGBT in clinical practices.

[Impact of Respiratory Motion on Point Doses for Three Whole-breast Irradiation Techniques after Breast-conserving Surgery]

PURPOSE

For whole-breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery, computed tomography simulation (CTS) and irradiation are generally performed during free breathing. In treatment planning, there are three techniques: field-in-field (FIF), physical wedge (PW), and enhanced dynamic wedge (EDW). The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of respiratory motion on doses for these three irradiation techniques.

METHODS

All doses were measured using an ionization chamber in a cylindrical phantom on a respiratory motion platform. Doses for each technique were measured with and without phantom motion. The dose without phantom motion was defined as the reference. The reference was compared to the dose with the phantom motion. The positions of the isocenter with respect to the ranges of phantom motion were set as exhale and intermediate. The phantom motion amplitude was set to 5 mm or 10 mm. The respiratory phase to initiate irradiation was varied as inhale, intermediate-inhale, exhale and intermediate-exhale.

RESULTS

When the motion amplitude was 10 mm, the dose differences for the FIF, PW, and EDW techniques were 4.2%, 0.5%, and 0.8%, respectively, at the maximum. However, the dose difference for the FIF technique was -0.5% when the isocenter position was set to the intermediate phase of phantom motion.

CONCLUSION

We found that the dose difference per fraction was reduced when the respiratory phase during CTS image acquisition was set to the intermediate phase. Meanwhile, the dose differences per fraction for the PW and EDW techniques were less affected by the respiratory motion.

Real-time in vivo dosimetry system based on an optical fiber-coupled microsized photostimulable phosphor for stereotactic body radiation therapy

PURPOSE

To develop an in vivo dosimeter system for stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) that can perform accurate and precise real-time measurements, using a microsized amount of a photostimulable phosphor (PSP), BaFBr:Eu²⁺ .

METHODS

The sensitive volume of the PSP was 1.26 × 10^-5  cm³ . The dosimeter system was designed to apply photostimulation to the PSP after the decay of noise signals, in synchronization with the photon beam pulse of a linear accelerator (LINAC), to eliminate the noise signals completely using a time separation technique. The noise signals included stem signals, and radioluminescence signals generated by the PSP. In addition, the dosimeter system was built on a storage-type dosimeter that could read out a signal after an arbitrary preset number of photon beam pulses were incident. First, the noise and photostimulated luminescence (PSL) signal decay times were measured. Subsequently, we confirmed that the PSL signals could be exclusively read out within the photon beam pulse interval. Finally, using a water phantom, the basic characteristics of the dosimeter system were demonstrated under SBRT conditions, and the feasibility for clinical application was investigated. The reproducibility, dose linearity, dose-rate dependence, temperature dependence, and angular dependence were evaluated. The feasibility was confirmed by measurements at various dose gradients and using a representative treatment plan for a metastatic liver tumor. A clinical plan was created with a two-arc beam volumetric modulated arc therapy using a 10 MV flattening filter-free photon beam. For the water phantom measurements, the clinical plan was compiled into a plan with a fixed gantry angle of 0°. To evaluate the energy dependence during SBRT, the percent depth dose (PDD) was measured and compared with those calculated via Monte Carlo (MC) simulations.

RESULTS

All the PSL signals could be read out while eliminating the noise signals within the minimum pulse interval of the LINAC. Stable real-time measurements could be performed with a time resolution of 56 ms (i.e., number of pulses = 20). The dose linearity was good in the dose range of 0.01-100 Gy. The measurements agreed within 1% at dose rates of 40-2400 cGy/min. The temperature and angular dependence were also acceptable since these dependencies had only a negligible effect on the measurements in SBRT. At a dose gradient of 2.21 Gy/mm, the measured dose agreed with that calculated using a treatment planning system (TPS) within the measurement uncertainties due to the probe position. For measurements using a representative treatment plan, the measured dose agreed with that calculated using the TPS within 0.5% at the center of the beam axis. The PDD measurements agreed with the MC calculations to within 1% for field sizes <5 × 5 cm² .

CONCLUSION

The in vivo dosimeter system developed using BaFBr:Eu²⁺ is capable of real-time, accurate, and precise measurement under SBRT conditions. The probe is smaller than a conventional dosimeter, has excellent spatial resolution, and can be valuable in SBRT with a steep dose distribution over a small field. The developed PSP dosimeter system appears to be suitable for in vivo SBRT dosimetry.

Novel artifact-robust and highly visible zinc solid fiducial marker for kilovoltage x-ray image-guided radiation therapy

PURPOSE

To develop a novel biocompatible solid fiducial marker that prevents radiopaque imaging artifacts and also maintains high imaging contrast for kilovoltage x-ray image-guided radiation therapy.

METHODS

The fiducial marker was made of pure zinc. An in-house water-equivalent phantom was designed to evaluate artifacts and visibility under various simulated treatment scenarios. Image artifacts were quantitatively assessed in terms of the metal artifact index (MAI) on kilovoltage computed tomography (CT) and cone-beam CT (CBCT) scans. Marker visibility was evaluated on two types of kilovoltage planar x-ray images in terms of the contrast-to-background ratio (CBR). Comparisons with a conventional gold fiducial marker were conducted.

RESULTS

The use of zinc rather than a gold marker mitigates imaging artifacts. The MAI near the zinc marker decreased by 76, 79, and 77 % in CT, and by 77 (81), 74 (80), and 79 (85) % in CBCT full-fan (half-fan) scans, when using one-, two-, and three-marker phantom settings, respectively. The high-contrast part of the zinc marker exhibited CBRs above 2.00 for 28/32 exposures under four (lung, tissue, low-density bone, and high-density bone) different simulation scenarios, making its visibility comparable to that of the gold marker (30/32 exposures with CBRs > 2.00).

CONCLUSIONS

We developed a biocompatible, artifact-robust, and highly visible solid zinc fiducial marker. Although further evaluation is needed in clinical settings, our findings suggest its feasibility and benefits for kilovoltage x-ray image-guided radiation therapy.

Application of dual-energy CT to suppression of metal artefact caused by pedicle screw fixation in radiotherapy: a feasibility study using original phantom

The objective of the present study was the determination of the potential dosimetric benefits of using metal-artefact-suppressed dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) images for cases involving pedicle screw implants in spinal sites. A heterogeneous spinal phantom was designed for the investigation of the dosimetric effect of the pedicle-screw-related artefacts. The dosimetric comparisons were first performed using a conventional two-directional opposed (AP-PA) plan, and then a volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plan, which are both used for the treatment of spinal metastases in our institution. The results of Acuros^® XB dose-to-medium (Dm) and dose-to-water (Dw) calculations using different imaging options were compared with experimental measurements including the chamber and film dosimetries in the spinal phantom. A dual-energy composition image with a weight factor of  -0.2 and a dual-energy monochromatic image (DEMI) with an energy level of 180 keV were found to have superior abilities for artefact suppression. The Dm calculations revealed greater dosimetric effects of the pedicle screw-related artefacts compared to the Dw calculations. The results of conventional single-energy computed tomography showed that, although the pedicle screws were made from low-Z titanium alloy, the metal artefacts still have dosimetric effects, namely, an average (maximum) Dm error of 4.4% (5.6%) inside the spinal cord for a complex VMAT treatment plan. Our findings indicate that metal-artefact suppression using the proposed DECT (DEMI) approach is promising for improving the dosimetric accuracy near the implants and inside the spinal cord (average (maximum) Dm error of 1.1% (2.0%)).

[Development of Dose Volume Histogram Analysis Program and Its Clinical Implementation]

Dose volume histogram (DVH) is one of the methods for evaluating the feasibility of radiotherapy plans. It is difficult to thoroughly comprehend an evaluation of each plan at a glance and to give a concise presentation of the case at conference. In this study, we provide a useful program that will fulfill such a purpose on a clinical setting. We have revised our protocols of radiotherapy planning, developed the program using Visual Basic 2010, which could facilitate an evaluation of DVH, and used it for checking plans and presentation at case conference. Since our DVH analysis program shows a result of DVH in a simple way, such as "OK (Okay)" or "NG (No good)", we can promptly comprehend the results of each radiotherapy plan at ease. This program easily tells us accordance between plans and protocols. We found this program useful and worth spreading.

[Detailed analysis of multi-leaf collimator movement during radiation delivery using an in-house-developed program]

Multi-leaf collimators (MLCs) are used to modulate intensity during intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Evaluation of MLC movement in IMRT is important, since the accuracy of MLC movements affects the dose distribution. This evaluation is conventionally performed using an attached Dynalog File Viewer (DFV). However, due to its being an overall evaluation, it is not possible to discover significant errors. In this study, we developed software that permits easy analysis of MLC movements that can be used to retrospectively evaluate MLC movement during irradiation. We also evaluated the usefulness of our in-house program and confirmed its potential for use in clinical scenarios. We created a program that can read MLC logfiles using Visual Basic 6.0 and visualize the temporal changes and movements of the MLC. To evaluate our in-house program's efficacy in analyzing dynamic MLC-QA (quality assurance), we compared the numerical results yielded by our in-house program and the DFV. The results showed that our in-house program was able to reveal errors below the error root mean square (RMS) values obtained using the DFV. Using irregular surface compensator (ISC) irradiation conditions in a clinical context, we compared our in-house program with the DFV and, using RMS analysis, identified cases that showed excessive error. Our in-house program can also be used to investigate whether unacceptable errors are present, as well as their cause, when using the MLC, as it allows easy real-time observation and evaluation of MLC movements. An additional benefit is that collecting the MLC logfile during actual treatment also allows it to be evaluated retrospectively after continuous MLC operation.

Expression profiles of genes associated with viral entry in HCV-infected human liver

Recent studies have demonstrated that several cellular factors are involved in entry of hepatitis C virus (HCV) into host cells. Detailed gene expression profiles of these factors in HCV-infected livers have not been reported for humans. Transcriptional levels of LDL receptor (LDLR), CD81, scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), claudin-1, and occludin genes in liver samples from patients with chronic hepatitis C were investigated. Serum levels of LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) and HCV core antigen were also evaluated, and expression of claudin-1 and occludin were immunohistochemically analyzed. Compared with normal liver, transcription of LDLR and claudin-1 genes was significantly suppressed (P < 0.0001) and occludin transcription was significantly up-regulated in HCV-infected livers (P < 0.0001). Significant positive correlations were found for LDLR versus occludin, LDLR versus claudin-1, occludin versus claudin-1, and CD81 versus SR-BI in HCV-infected (P = 0.0012, P < 0.0001, P = 0.0004, and P < 0.0001, respectively) and normal livers (P < 0.0001, P = 0.0051, P < 0.0001, and P < 0.0001, respectively). Positive correlation was observed between serum levels of HCV core antigen and LDL-C (P = 0.0147), with their levels negatively correlated to LDLR (P = 0.0270 and P = 0.0021, respectively). Immunohistochemically, hepatocellular expression of claudin-1 and occludin was increased in HCV-infected livers. Different levels of expression were demonstrated at the mRNA and protein levels for occludin and claudin-1 in HCV-infected and normal livers. Correlation of elements associated with viral entry was comparable in HCV-infected and normal livers.

In vitro effects of chlorpromazine on glycerol-3-phosphate acyl transferase and 1-acylglycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase in rat liver microsomes

The in vitro effect of chlorpromazine on rat liver glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase and 1-acylglycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase was studied. Chlorpromazine decreased glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. The inhibition was competitive with respect to palmitoyl-CoA, while non-competitive with respect to sn-glycerol-3-phosphate. Ki was determined to be approximately 0.15 mM with respect to both palmitoyl-CoA and sn-glycerol-3-phosphate. From these results, together with the inhibitory effect of amphiphilic anions and neutral detergents on the enzyme demonstrated by others, it was proposed that the hydrophobic moiety of chlorpromazine competes with acyl-CoA. The activity of 1-acylglycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase was inhibited by excess of 1-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphate. In the acceptor concentration range where the substrate inhibition was observed, chlorpromazine showed stimulatory effect on the enzyme activity. At lower concentrations of the acceptor, however, chlorpromazine produced marked inhibition of the enzyme activity. From the kinetic analysis, the inhibition was found to be uncompetitive with respect to acyl-CoA. It was found that the enzyme was more susceptible to the inhibitory action of chlorpromazine with unsaturated acyl-CoAs than with the saturated species, raising the possibility that chlorpromazine alters the molecular species composition of phosphatidic acid produced by the acylation reaction.