Brachytherapy Flashcards
What is the most common HDR source?
Ir192
What is the half-life of Ir192?
74 days
What is the gamma factor of Ir192?
4.69 R cm^2/(mCi h)
What is the decay energy of Ir192?
380 keV
What is the TVL of Ir192?
1.2 cm pb or 15 cm of concrete
What is the HVL of Ir192?
0.25 cm Pb
What is the general TG43 equation?
Dose rate at distance r and angle theta = SK * Lambda * GL(r,theta)/GL(r0,theta0) * gL(r) * F(r,theta)
what is “r” in TG43
distance from the center of the source to the point of interest
what is r0 in TG43?
reference distance = 1 cm
What is theta in TG43?
The angle between the line connecting the center of the source to the point of interest and the longitudinal axis of the source.
What is theta0 in TG43?
The reference angle = 90 degrees or pi/2 radians
What is SK in TG43?
Air Kerma Strength
How is SK found in TG43?
It’s the air Kerma rate at a distance of d in vacuo (so ignoring attenuation and scatter) due to photons above a cut-off energy (so excluding low-E contamination) TIMES d^2
What is the delta cut-off typically for determining the air Kerma rate?
5 keV
What are the units of SK in TG43?
U = cGy*cm^2/h
What is Lambda in TG43?
Dose rate constant = dose rate at the reference location (r0,theta0)/SK
What are the units of Lambda in TG43?
cGy/(h*U)
Where do you get SK for TG43?
It’s what you should get with your source? From the company?
Where do you get Lambda for TG43?
It’s published and you look it up based on the radionuclide and source model
What is GL(r,theta) in TG43?
Geometry function, it’s your inverse square correction
What is gL(r) in TG43?
Radial dose function, accounts for dose falloff due to scattering and attenuation and includes the effects of encapsulation, self-attenuation, etc. BUT is only along the transverse plane
Where do you get GL in TG43?
Calculate it based on whether you’re using the point-source or line-source approximation.
Where do you get gL(r) in TG43?
Either look it up on the table or use a 5th order polynomial fit
What is F(r,theta) in TG43?
Anisotropy function - takes into account internal shielding of source that causes the emission to not be totally isotropic