Biophysics & Radiotherapy
Narges Araste; Hossein Tavakoli-Anbaran
Volume 27, Issue 1 , May and June 2020, , Pages 17-26
Abstract
Background: The Compton scattered annihilation gammas between PET detectors reduce spatial resolution by making an incorrect Line of Response. This paper, by presenting a new method, tried to remove these errors from PET imaging. In this way, the detectors were insulated so that scattered gammas from ...
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Background: The Compton scattered annihilation gammas between PET detectors reduce spatial resolution by making an incorrect Line of Response. This paper, by presenting a new method, tried to remove these errors from PET imaging. In this way, the detectors were insulated so that scattered gammas from a detector can not enter other detectors of the PET ring. Method: First of all, the Siemens PET BiographTM 6 scanner ring was simulated and then all detectors of this ring were isolated to resolve this error and investigate its impact on the Response Function of PET detectors. Results: The analysis of the results of simulation showed that, the isolation of PET detectors reduced counts of detectors in the energy window, especially at the lower threshold (350 to 400 keV). This reduction with a spherical soft issue was less than without that. So that the maximum of the relative percentage difference for counts of detectors between connect and disconnect them was 70% (in 400 keV) and 12% (in 350 keV) in the absence and presence of soft tissue, respectively. Conclusion: Although the isolation of the detectors boosted the resolution of PET, it removed some true coincidences and reduced the sensitivity of PET; there for, it did not have much effect on image quality of PET. Also, a slight decrease in the count, with the soft tissue, shows the greater effect of the isolation of PET-detectors in improving image quality in abdominal imaging in comparison with other imaging such as head and neck imaging.
Biophysics & Radiotherapy
Hossein Tavakoli-Anbaran; Nadere Naderi
Volume 26, Issue 6 , March and April 2020, , Pages 665-675
Abstract
Ionizing radiation modifies the molecular structure of the cell and ultimately disrupts its function. Brachytherapy by the Gamma Iridium-192 source is one of the most widely used radiotherapy methods in cervical and prostate cancer. For this reason, in the research, we investigated the damage to the ...
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Ionizing radiation modifies the molecular structure of the cell and ultimately disrupts its function. Brachytherapy by the Gamma Iridium-192 source is one of the most widely used radiotherapy methods in cervical and prostate cancer. For this reason, in the research, we investigated the damage to the DNA molecule by photons and secondary electrons of the source at different distances, and then we obtained the dose rates in the defined dimensions of DNA. In this work, using the MCNPX code, we calculated the flux and photon dose and secondary electrons from iradium-192 Brachytherapy, in approximate dimensions of DNA in a water phantom. Then, using the electron flux obtained, through the MCDS code, we investigated the efficiency of DNA breaks at different distances from the source. The simulations indicated that DNA damage is different at various distances from the source and it depends on the number of secondary electrons reaching that region as well as its energy. With increasing the distance from the source, the values of the probability distribution function of DNA single-strand and two-strand breaks diminish. It was also observed that these values had peaks at distances of 0.04 and 2.5 cm from the source, where the maximum probability of single-strand break at those distances was 8.06% and 3.9%, respectively, and the maximum probability of the two-strand break at those distances was 0.54% and 0.11%, respectively. It is notable that the dose reaching the DNA at these distances was 27.202 and 0.005 mGy/h, respectively.