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Biomedical subjects

D C Murray

Publications and source records attributed to D C Murray.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

Beam hardening of 10 MV radiotherapy x-rays: analysis using a convolution/superposition method.

Total and primary polyenergetic dose spread arrays (PDSA) have been generated for a high energy 10 MV radiotherapy photon beam using the electron gamma shower (EGS) Monte Carlo code. By considering the attenuation of fluence per energy interval, PDSA have been produced at radiological depths of 0 cm (the surface PDSA) and 40 cm (the beam hardened PDSA). By comparing primary PDSA produced at these different depths, the effect of beam hardening on the PDSA has been quantified. Calculations show that the mean electron range due to the surface primary PDSA is 6.67 mm and the mean electron range of the beam hardened primary PDSA is 8.24 mm. In comparison, a 3 MeV primary monoenergetic dose spread array (MDSA) has a much smaller mean electron range of 4.81 mm. A radiotherapy x-ray beam computation method is introduced which involves a single superposition of the surface generated PDSA or beam hardened PDSA with a polyenergetic TERMA. The mean percentage difference between depth-dose curves obtained using super-position of surface and beam hardened PDSA is only 0.1%. The mean percentage difference from experimental data for these superposition curves is 2.8% down to 40 cm in a homogeneous phantom. The superposition process is shown to be forgiving to spectral differences when calculating the PDSA, but sensitive to the incident photon energy spectrum used to calculate the TERMA.

Biophysical Phenomena↗
PubMed1990

The production of body analogs for use in radiation physics.

Bone, muscle and lung analog materials have been produced in-house, and dosimetry phantoms have been produced. A method using computed tomography (CT) has been developed to check that the analogs produced match the radiation properties of body tissues. The relative electron densities and ratio of electron cross sections are calculated from elemental compositions of the analogs. Using these data the theoretical CT numbers are calculated and these numbers are compared with experimental CT numbers for the analogs produced. The experimental CT numbers are found by scanning the samples on a Siemens DRH CT scanner. Results show the maximum difference between theoretical and experimental CT numbers for the analogs is 18 Hounsfield units, which relates to a delta NCT of less than 1%. Comparison of analog CT numbers with CT numbers for the related patient tissues also shows a close match.

Body Composition↗
PubMed1990

Superposition dose calculation in lung for 10MV photons.

Currently available radiotherapy treatment planning systems employ scatter function models such as ETAR and Batho dSAR for dose calculation. Errors using these models for high energy photon irradiation occur in and beyond lung tissue for small fields. For larger fields, central axis dose is correctly predicted but penumbral broadening in lung is underestimated. The major source of error is the assumption that lateral electronic equilibrium is always established. A superposition algorithm has been developed for 10MV photons which calculates the dose by convolving the TERMA (Total Energy Released per unit MAss by primary photons) with a dose spread array formed using the EGS4 Monte Carlo code. TERMA and dose spread arrays are both generated using a 10 component photon energy spectrum. Dose in inhomogeneous media is calculated using dose spread arrays generated for different density media and by scaling dose spread arrays according to density variations. This method ensures that electronic disequilibrium is modelled in situations where it exists. Superposition results in a lung phantom for a 5 x 5 cm field agree with EGS4 Monte Carlo results to within 2% for p = 0.20 gcm-3 and p = 0.30 gcm-3 lung. Profiles generated by superposition for a 10 x 10 cm field at mid-lung and compared with film measurements show that penumbral broadening in low density material is also correctly predicted.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1989

3-D superposition for radiotherapy treatment planning using fast Fourier transforms.

Currently used radiotherapy treatment planning algorithms based on effective path length or scatter function methods do not model electron ranging from photon interaction sites. The superposition (or convolution) technique does model this effect, which is especially important at higher (linear accelerator) energies since the electron range is significant. Another advantage of this method is that it is conceptually simple and models the physical processes directly, rather than using empirically derived methods. A major disadvantage of superposition lies in the large amount of computer time required to generate a plan, especially in three dimensions. To help solve this problem, superposition using an invariant dose spread array (kernel) can be achieved by performing a convolution in Fourier space using fast Fourier transforms (FFTs). A method for 3 dimensional calculation of dose using FFTs is presented. Dose spread arrays are calculated using the EGS Monte Carlo code, and convolved with the TERMA (total energy released per unit mass). In both cases a 10 MV nominal beam energy is modelled by a 10 component spectrum, which is compared to the result obtained using monochromatic energy only (3.0 MeV at the surface). The FFT technique is shown to be significantly faster than standard convolution for medium to large TERMA and dose spread array sizes. The method is shown to be highly accurate for small fields in homogeneous media. For larger fields the central axis depth dose is accurate but the profile shape in the penumbral region becomes slightly distorted. This is because photons incident near the beam edges are not parallel to the cartesian coordinate system used as the convolution framework. However, this effect is sufficiently small to indicate that the convolution method is suitable for use in routine treatment planning.

Fourier Analysis↗
PubMed1989

Modelling polychromatic high energy photon beams by superposition.

A unified three dimensional superposition approach to dose calculations used in treatment planning of polychromatic high energy photon beams in radiotherapy is developed. The approach we have used involves computing the dose at all points in a medium by superposing the dose spread array (DSA) from the interaction of a photon at a point in the medium with an array of data representing the TERMA (photon fluence times the photon energy) at points in the beam. The polychromatic nature of the beam is accounted for by modelling the beam as having ten spectral components. A "polychromatic dose spread array" (PDSA) for an interaction from a beam with this spectrum was derived. The TERMA array is calculated from a weighted average of the TERMA arrays for the ten photon energies to give a "polychromatic TERMA array". Thus the method accounts for the effect of beam hardening of the TERMA. But it does not account for the effect of beam hardening on the PDSA since a single PDSA (usually for the spectrum at the surface of the medium) is used at all depths. However, by considering measured and calculated beam central axis data, this model is shown to be adequate for computing depth doses for beams in a homogeneous medium penetrating to extreme radiological depths. A computation time advantage is gained because only one superposition per beam is required.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Superposition on a multicomputer system.

Superposition (convolution using a noninvariant kernel) has been shown to be a highly promising technique for use in calculating dose distributions in radiotherapy treatment planning. However, one major difficulty that currently prevents use in routine planning is the computational effort required to perform the calculation in three dimensions. To help solve this problem the superposition technique has been implemented on a parallel processor multicomputer in order to examine the performance characteristics of such a system. Up to eight elements have been connected in a pipeline (linear array), and tree networks of three and seven processors have also been constructed (using INMOS T800 transputers). The significant results obtained with these networks are: (1) Both topologies provide near-linear speedup with increasing processor number (8 processors provide 7.81 times the computing power of a single processor when using an optimal communication packet size); (2) increasing communication packet size from 1 voxel to an optimum of approximately 40 voxels significantly reduces communication overhead per processor. Overhead per processor for a 7-element linear array is 6.9% when using 1-voxel packets, but only 1.8% when using 40-voxel packets; (3) the topology of the network has some effect on communication overhead: Arranging 7 processors in a 1-2-4 binary tree reduces overhead to 80.1% of that encountered using a 7-element linear array (with packet size of 1 voxel).

Algorithms↗