1,065 research outputs found
A comparison of dose-response characteristics of four NTCP models using outcomes of radiation-induced optic neuropathy and retinopathy
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Biological models are used to relate the outcome of radiation therapy to dose distribution. As use of biological models in treatment planning expands, uncertainties associated with the use of specific models for predicting outcomes should be understood and quantified. In particular, the question to what extent model predictions are data-driven or dependent on the choice of the model has to be explored.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Four dose-response models--logistic, log-logistic, Poisson-based and probit--were tested for their ability and consistency in describing dose-response data for radiation-induced optic neuropathy (RION) and retinopathy (RIRP). Dose to the optic nerves was specified as the minimum dose, <it>D<sub>min</sub></it>, received by any segment of the organ to which the damage was diagnosed by ophthalmologic evaluation. For retinopathy, the dose to the retina was specified as the highest isodose covering at least 1/3 of the retinal surface (<it>D<sub>33%</sub></it>) that geometrically covered the observed retinal damage. Data on both complications were modeled separately for patients treated once daily and twice daily. Model parameters <it>D<sub>50 </sub></it>and <it>γ </it>and corresponding confidence intervals were obtained using maximum-likelihood method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Model parameters were reasonably consistent for RION data for patients treated once daily, <it>D<sub>50 </sub></it>ranging from 94.2 to 104.7 Gy and <it>γ </it>from 0.88 to 1.41. Similar consistency was seen for RIRP data which span a broad range of complication incidence, with <it>D<sub>50 </sub></it>from 72.2 to 75.0 Gy and <it>γ </it>from 1.51 to 2.16 for patients treated twice daily; 72.2-74.0 Gy and 0.84-1.20 for patients treated once daily. However, large variations were observed for RION in patients treated twice daily, D<sub>50 </sub>from 96.3 to 125.2 Gy and <it>γ </it>from 0.80 to 1.56. Complication incidence in this dataset in any dose group did not exceed 20%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>For the considered data sets, the log-logistic model tends to lead to larger <it>D<sub>50 </sub></it>and lower <it>γ </it>compared to other models for all datasets. Statements regarding normal tissue radiosensitivity and steepness of dose-response, based on model parameters, should be made with caution as the latter are not only model-dependent but also sensitive to the range of complication incidence exhibited by clinical data.</p
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Dosimetric comparison study between intensity modulated radiation therapy and three-dimensional conformal proton therapy for pelvic bone marrow sparing in the treatment of cervical cancer.
The objective was to compare intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with 3D conformal proton therapy (3DCPT) in the treatment of cervical cancer. In particular, each technique's ability to spare pelvic bone marrow (PBM) was of primary interest in this study. A total of six cervical cancer patients (3 postoperative and 3 intact) were planned and analyzed. All plans had uniform 1.0 cm CTV-PTV margin and satisfied the 95% PTV with 100% isodose (prescription dose = 45 Gy) coverage. Dose-volume histograms (DVH) were analyzed for comparison. The overall PTV and PBM volumes were 1035.9 ± 192.2 cc and 1151.4 ± 198.3 cc, respectively. In terms of PTV dose conformity index (DCI) and dose homogeneity index (DHI), 3DCPT was slightly superior to IMRT with 1.00 ± 0.001, 1.01 ± 0.02, and 1.10 ± 0.02, 1.13 ± 0.01, respectively. In addition, 3DCPT demonstrated superiority in reducing lower doses (i.e., V30 or less) to PBM, small bowel and bladder. Particularly in PBM, average V10 and V20 reductions of 10.8% and 7.4% (p = 0.001 and 0.04), respectively, were observed. However, in the higher dose range, IMRT provided better sparing (> V30). For example, in small bowel and PBM, average reductions in V45 of 4.9% and 10.0% (p = 0.048 and 0.008), respectively, were observed. Due to its physical characteristics such as low entrance dose, spread-out Bragg peak and finite particle range of protons, 3DCPT illustrated superior target coverage uniformity and sparing of the lower doses in PBM and other organs. Further studies are, however, needed to fully exploit the benefits of protons for general use in cervical cancer
Deformable registration of X-ray and MRI for post-implant dosimetry in low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy
Purpose
Dosimetric assessment following permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) commonly involves seed localization using CT and prostate delineation using coregistered MRI. However, pelvic CT leads to additional imaging dose and requires significant resources to acquire and process both CT and MRI. In this study, we propose an automatic postimplant dosimetry approach that retains MRI for soft‐tissue contouring, but eliminates the need for CT and reduces imaging dose while overcoming the inconsistent appearance of seeds on MRI with three projection x rays acquired using a mobile C‐arm.
Methods
Implanted seeds are reconstructed using x rays by solving a combinatorial optimization problem and deformably registered to MRI. Candidate seeds are located in MR images using local hypointensity identification. X ray‐based seeds are registered to these candidate seeds in three steps: (a) rigid registration using a stochastic evolutionary optimizer, (b) affine registration using an iterative closest point optimizer, and (c) deformable registration using a local feature point search and nonrigid coherent point drift. The algorithm was evaluated using 20 PPB patients with x rays acquired immediately postimplant and T2‐weighted MR images acquired the next day at 1.5 T with mean 0.8 × 0.8 × 3.0 mmurn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp13667:mp13667-math-0001 voxel dimensions. Target registration error (TRE) was computed based on the distance from algorithm results to manually identified seed locations using coregistered CT acquired the same day as the MRI. Dosimetric accuracy was determined by comparing prostate D90 determined using the algorithm and the ground truth CT‐based seed locations.
Results
The mean ± standard deviation TREs across 20 patients including 1774 seeds were 2.23 ± 0.52 mm (rigid), 1.99 ± 0.49 mm (rigid + affine), and 1.76 ± 0.43 mm (rigid + affine + deformable). The corresponding mean ± standard deviation D90 errors were 5.8 ± 4.8%, 3.4 ± 3.4%, and 2.3 ± 1.9%, respectively. The mean computation time of the registration algorithm was 6.1 s.
Conclusion
The registration algorithm accuracy and computation time are sufficient for clinical PPB postimplant dosimetry
GPU-based Fast Low-dose Cone Beam CT Reconstruction via Total Variation
Cone-beam CT (CBCT) has been widely used in image guided radiation therapy
(IGRT) to acquire updated volumetric anatomical information before treatment
fractions for accurate patient alignment purpose. However, the excessive x-ray
imaging dose from serial CBCT scans raises a clinical concern in most IGRT
procedures. The excessive imaging dose can be effectively reduced by reducing
the number of x-ray projections and/or lowering mAs levels in a CBCT scan. The
goal of this work is to develop a fast GPU-based algorithm to reconstruct high
quality CBCT images from undersampled and noisy projection data so as to lower
the imaging dose. The CBCT is reconstructed by minimizing an energy functional
consisting of a data fidelity term and a total variation regularization term.
We developed a GPU-friendly version of the forward-backward splitting algorithm
to solve this model. A multi-grid technique is also employed. We test our CBCT
reconstruction algorithm on a digital NCAT phantom and a head-and-neck patient
case. The performance under low mAs is also validated using a physical Catphan
phantom and a head-and-neck Rando phantom. It is found that 40 x-ray
projections are sufficient to reconstruct CBCT images with satisfactory quality
for IGRT patient alignment purpose. Phantom experiments indicated that CBCT
images can be successfully reconstructed with our algorithm under as low as 0.1
mAs/projection level. Comparing with currently widely used full-fan
head-and-neck scanning protocol of about 360 projections with 0.4
mAs/projection, it is estimated that an overall 36 times dose reduction has
been achieved with our algorithm. Moreover, the reconstruction time is about
130 sec on an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU card, which is estimated ~100 times faster
than similar iterative reconstruction approaches.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, Paper was revised and more testing cases were
added
3D tumor localization through real-time volumetric x-ray imaging for lung cancer radiotherapy
Recently we have developed an algorithm for reconstructing volumetric images
and extracting 3D tumor motion information from a single x-ray projection. We
have demonstrated its feasibility using a digital respiratory phantom with
regular breathing patterns. In this work, we present a detailed description and
a comprehensive evaluation of the improved algorithm. The algorithm was
improved by incorporating respiratory motion prediction. The accuracy and
efficiency were then evaluated on 1) a digital respiratory phantom, 2) a
physical respiratory phantom, and 3) five lung cancer patients. These
evaluation cases include both regular and irregular breathing patterns that are
different from the training dataset. For the digital respiratory phantom with
regular and irregular breathing, the average 3D tumor localization error is
less than 1 mm. On an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU card, the average computation time
for 3D tumor localization from each projection ranges between 0.19 and 0.26
seconds, for both regular and irregular breathing, which is about a 10%
improvement over previously reported results. For the physical respiratory
phantom, an average tumor localization error below 1 mm was achieved with an
average computation time of 0.13 and 0.16 seconds on the same GPU card, for
regular and irregular breathing, respectively. For the five lung cancer
patients, the average tumor localization error is below 2 mm in both the axial
and tangential directions. The average computation time on the same GPU card
ranges between 0.26 and 0.34 seconds
Drop Traffic in Microfluidic Ladder Networks with Fore-Aft Structural Asymmetry
We investigate the dynamics of pairs of drops in microfluidic ladder networks
with slanted bypasses, which break the fore-aft structural symmetry. Our
analytical results indicate that unlike symmetric ladder networks, structural
asymmetry introduced by a single slanted bypass can be used to modulate the
relative drop spacing, enabling them to contract, synchronize, expand, or even
flip at the ladder exit. Our experiments confirm all these behaviors predicted
by theory. Numerical analysis further shows that while ladder networks
containing several identical bypasses are limited to nearly linear
transformation of input delay between drops, mixed combination of bypasses can
cause significant non-linear transformation enabling coding and decoding of
input delays.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Ultrahigh Surface Area Three-Dimensional Porous Graphitic Carbon from Conjugated Polymeric Molecular Framework
Porous graphitic carbon is essential for many applications such as energy storage devices, catalysts, and sorbents. However, current graphitic carbons are limited by low conductivity, low surface area, and ineffective pore structure. Here we report a scalable synthesis of porous graphitic carbons using a conjugated polymeric molecular framework as precursor. The multivalent cross-linker and rigid conjugated framework help to maintain micro- and mesoporous structures, while promoting graphitization during carbonization and chemical activation. The above unique design results in a class of highly graphitic carbons at temperature as low as 800 ??C with record-high surface area (4073 m2 g-1), large pore volume (2.26 cm-3), and hierarchical pore architecture. Such carbons simultaneously exhibit electrical conductivity >3 times more than activated carbons, very high electrochemical activity at high mass loading, and high stability, as demonstrated by supercapacitors and lithium-sulfur batteries with excellent performance. Moreover, the synthesis can be readily tuned to make a broad range of graphitic carbons with desired structures and compositions for many applications.clos
ACE-ASIA - Regional climatic and atmospheric chemical effects of Asian dust and pollution
Although continental-scale plumes of Asian dust and pollution reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface and perturb the chemistry of the atmosphere, our ability to quantify these effects has been limited by a lack of critical observations, particularly of layers above the surface. Comprehensive surface, airborne, shipboard, and satellite measurements of Asian aerosol chemical composition, size, optical properties, and radiative impacts were performed during the Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia) study. Measurements within a massive Chinese dust storm at numerous widely spaced sampling locations revealed the highly complex structure of the atmosphere, in which layers of dust, urban pollution, and biomass-burning smoke may be transported long distances as distinct entities or mixed together. The data allow a first-time assessment of the regional climatic and atmospheric chemical effects of a continental-scale mixture of dust and pollution. Our results show that radiative flux reductions during such episodes are sufficient to cause regional climate change
Quark-Gluon Plasma at RHIC and the LHC: Perfect Fluid too Perfect?
Relativistic heavy ion collisions have reached energies that enable the
creation of a novel state of matter termed the quark-gluon plasma. Many
observables point to a picture of the medium as rapidly equilibrating and
expanding as a nearly inviscid fluid. In this article, we explore the evolution
of experimental flow observables as a function of collision energy and attempt
to reconcile the observed similarities across a broad energy regime in terms of
the initial conditions and viscous hydrodynamics. If the initial spatial
anisotropies are very similar for all collision energies from 39 GeV to 2.76
TeV, we find that viscous hydrodynamics might be consistent with the level of
agreement for v2 of unidentified hadrons as a function of pT . However, we
predict a strong collision energy dependence for the proton v2(pT). The results
presented in this paper highlight the need for more systematic studies and a
re-evaluation of previously stated sensitivities to the early time dynamics and
properties of the medium.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, submitted to the New Journal of Physics focus
issue "Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold Quantum Gases to
QCD Plasmas
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