The British Journal of Radiology, Vol 70, Issue 831 299-302, Copyright © 1997 by British Institute of Radiology

ARTICLES

A survey of current in vivo radiotherapy dosimetry practice

CR Edwards, MH Grieveson, PJ Mountford and P Rolfe
Department of Biomedical Engineering & Medical Physics, North Staffordshire Hospital, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.

A questionnaire was sent out to 57 radiotherapy physics departments in the United Kingdom to determine the type of dosemeters used for in vivo measurements inside and outside X-ray treatment fields, and whether any correction is made for energy dependence when the dose to critical organs outside the main beam is estimated. 44 responses were received. 11 centres used a semi-conductor for central axis dosimetry compared with only two centres which used thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD). 37 centres carried out dosimetry measurements outside the main beam; 25 centres used TLD and 12 centres used a semi-conductor detector. Of the 16 centres measuring the dose at both sites. 11 used a semi-conductor for the central axis measurement, but only four of those 11 changed to TLD for critical organ dosimetry despite the latter's lower variation in energy response. None of the centres stated that they made a correction for the variation in detector energy response when making measurements outside the main beam, indicating a need for a more detailed evaluation of the energy response of these detectors and the energy spectra outside the main beam.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C R Edwards, E Hamer, P J Mountford, and A J Moloney An update survey of UK in vivo radiotherapy dosimetry practice Br. J. Radiol., December 1, 2007; 80(960): 1011 - 1014. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]