OBJECTIVE An important source of error in arterial spin labeling (ASL) is incomplete static tissue subtraction due to imperfect slice profiles. This effect can be reduced by saturating the spins in the imaging area prior to labeling. In this study, the use of optimized presaturation is compared with the use of optimized RF pulses for minimizing this error. MATERIALS AND METHODS Different meth...

Purpose: Patients treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head-and-neck cancer are often positioned supine on a carbon fibre board to which a thermoplastic mask is attached to immobilise the head and shoulders. For patients unable to tolerate a supine position, we developed a tilting board that accommodates a full-scale head-and-shoulder mask. Materials and methods: Phanto...

objectives: the aim of this study was to verify the treatment planning systems (tpss). the next aim was to validate imsure qa software for patient-specific qa in radiotherapy clinics.  material and methods: we used imsure qa software (standard imaging, v 3.5) for verification of 92 non-imrt plans (540 fields) in 10 radiotherapy clinics. to validate the imsure, dose measurement was performed in ...

We show that a multiexponential model for time-resolved fluorescence allows the use of an absorption-perturbation Monte Carlo (MC) approach based on stored photon path histories. This enables the rapid fitting of fluorescence yield, lifetimes, and background tissue absorptions in complex heterogeneous media within a few seconds, without the need for temporal convolutions or MC recalculation of ...

PURPOSE To find the optimal slice thickness (Δτ) setting for patient registration with kilovoltage cone-beam CT (kVCBCT) on the Varian On Board Imager (OBI) system by investigating the relationship of slice thickness to automatic registration accuracy and contrast-to-noise ratio. MATERIALS AND METHOD Automatic registration was performed on kVCBCT studies of the head and pelvis of a RANDO anth...

Amorphous silicon (a-Si) electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) are x-ray detectors frequently used in radiotherapy imaging and dosimetry applications. EPIDs employ a copper plate and gadolinium oxysulfide phosphor screen with an array of a-Si photodiodes to indirectly detect incident radiation. In this study, a previously developed Monte Carlo (MC) model of an aSi EPID has been extended for...

Electronic portal imaging device (EPID) plays an important role in radiation therapy portal imaging, geometric and dosimetric verification. Consistent image quality and stable radiation response is necessary for proper utilization that requires routine quality assurance (QA). A commercial 'EPID QC' phantom weighing 3.8 kg with a dimension of 25 × 25 × 4.8 cm³ is used for EPID QA. This device ha...

A shortcoming of current coronary MRA methods with thin-slab 3D acquisitions is the time-consuming examination necessitated by extensive scout scanning and precise slice planning. To improve ease of use and cover larger parts of the anatomy, it appears desirable to image the entire heart with high spatial resolution instead. For this purpose, an isotropic 3D-radial acquisition was employed in t...