A polymer-gel eye-phantom for 3D fluorescent imaging of millimetre radiation beams

Leonard H. Luthjens, Tiantian Yao, John M. Warman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
43 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We have filled a 24 mm diameter glass sphere with a transparent polymer-gel that is radio-fluorogenic, i.e., it becomes (permanently) fluorescent when irradiated, with an intensity proportional to the local dose deposited. The gel consists of > 99.9% tertiary-butyl acrylate (TBA), pre-polymerized to ~15% conversion, and ~100 ppm maleimido-pyrene (MPy). Its dimensions and physical properties are close to those of the vitreous body of the human eye. We have irradiated the gel with a 3 mm diameter, 200 kVp X-ray beam with a dose rate of ~1 Gy/min. A three-dimensional (3D) (video) view of the beam within the gel has been constructed from tomographic images obtained by scanning the sample through a thin sheet of UV light. To minimize optical artefacts, the cell was immersed in a square tank containing a refractive-index-matching medium. The 20-80% penumbra of the beam was determined to be ~0.4 mm. This research was a preparatory investigation of the possibility of using this method to monitor the millimetre diameter proton pencil beams used in ocular radiotherapy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1195
Number of pages8
JournalPolymers
Volume10
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • 3D radiation imaging
  • Polymer gel dosimetry
  • Radio-fluorogenic gel
  • Radiotherapy eye-phantom
  • X-ray beam imaging

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