The Novac7 and Liac are linear accelerators (linacs) dedicated to intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT), which produce high energy, very high dose‐per‐pulse electron beams. The characteristics of the accelerators heads of the Novac7 and Liac are different compared to conventional electron accelerators. The aim of this work was to investigate the specific characteristics of the Novac7 and Liac electron beams using the Monte Carlo method. The Monte Carlo code BEAMnrc has been employed to model the head and simulate the electron beams. The Monte Carlo simulation was preliminarily validated by comparing the simulated dose distributions with those measured by means of EBT radiochromic film. Then, the energy spectra, mean energy profiles, fluence profiles, photon contamination, and angular distributions were obtained from the Monte Carlo simulation. The Spencer‐Attix water‐to‐air mass restricted collision stopping power ratios (normalsW,air) were also calculated. Moreover, the modifications of the percentage depth dose in water (backscatter effect) due to the presence of an attenuator plate composed of a sandwich of a 2 mm aluminum foil and a 4 mm lead foil, commonly used for breast treatments, were evaluated. The calculated normalsW,air values are in agreement with those tabulated in the IAEA TRS‐398 dosimetric code of practice within 0.2% and 0.4% at zref (reference depth in water) for the Novac7 and Liac, respectively. These differences are negligible for practical dosimetry. The attenuator plate is sufficient to completely absorb the electron beam for each energy of the Novac7 and Liac; moreover, the shape of the dose distribution in water strongly changes with the introduction of the attenuator plate. This variation depends on the energy of the beam, and it can give rise to an increase in the maximum dose in the range of 3%–9%.PACS number: 87.56.‐v
Very high dose per pulse (3-13 cGy/pulse) high energy electron beams are currently produced by special linear accelerators (linac) dedicated to Intra Operative Radiation Therapy (IORT). The electron beams produced by such linacs are collimated by special Perspex applicators of various size and cylindrically shaped. The biggest problems from the dosimetric point of view are caused by the high dose-per-pulse values and the use of inclined applicators. In this work measurements of absolute dose for the inclined applicators were done by using a small cylindrical ionization chamber, type CC01 (Wellhofer), a parallel plane ionization chamber type Markus (PTW 23343) and radiochromic films type EBT. We show a method which allows calculating the quality correction factors for CC01 chamber with an uncertainty of 1% and the absolute dose value for the inclined applicators using CC01 with an uncertainty of 3.1% for electron beams of energy of 6 and 7 MeV produced by the linac dedicated to IORT Novac7.
Osteons are longitudinally arranged cylindrical structures, which form the structural units of cortical bone. Cortical bone remodeling is closely related to the osteonal organization as newly formed osteons continuously replace older ones. The degree of mineralization in these new osteons is initially lower than in the existing bone as it takes time before osteons mature. Synchrotron radiation-based computed microtomography (µCT) and scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) are two techniques, which have both sufficient spatial resolution and sensitivity to detect local variations in bone density. The aim of this study was therefore to compare both techniques for the analysis of osteonal mineralization. Eight human cortical bone samples were scanned with both techniques and the corresponding images were matched. Synchrotron-based µCT is not affected by beam hardening and the gray values in the reconstructed images are directly related to the local mineral density. For cortical bone this means that immature osteons appear darker than their surrounding. In SAM-images the gray values are a measure of the acoustic impedance, which is a function of the local stiffness and the density. Comparison of the µCT and the SAM images of the cortical samples shows a good correspondence in the gray values of the individual osteons.
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