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Calibration of an x-ray cabinet unit for radiobiology use

Carolyn McKerracher and David I Thwaites1

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A Faxitron sealed x-ray cabinet, operated at 100 kV, was modified to irradiate monkey testicles, to a uniform, accurately calibrated dose, for work aimed at investigating spermatogenesis in children undergoing radiotherapy. An aluminium filter was added to increase the beam quality and a lead collimating system manufactured to reduce the beam size to between 1 and 4 cm diameter. Percentage depth doses and profiles were analysed and relative in-air outputs measured with a selection of small (0.2 cc, 0.015 cc) ion chambers. The absolute calibration of the unit was carried out in a 10 × 10 cm2 beam with a 0.6 cc chamber. Backscatter factors were based on standard tables, but then modified according to experimental results with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) in a phantom to account for reduced scatter in the irradiation situations. A suitable irradiation set-up was devised for the monkeys, to ensure accuracy of delivered dose to the target volume and minimize the dose to the surrounding healthy tissue. The homogeneity throughout the testes was calculated to be well within ±5%, using a parallel-opposed irradiation technique. The TLD measured doses to the testes on three monkeys were lower than the calculated doses by 3 to 6%. Following modifications to the standard percentage depth doses to account for changes in scatter conditions, these differences became ±3%. The uncertainties on both calculated and measured dose were estimated to be approximately ±3.2% at 1 SD.


PACS

87.53.Bn Dosimetry/exposure assessment

87.56.Da Ancillary equipment

87.56.J- Collimation

87.50.wj Dosimetry/exposure assessment

06.20.fb Standards and calibration

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Biological physics

Medical physics

Dates

Issue 14 (21 July 2006)

Received 30 January 2006, in final form 13 April 2006

Published 23 June 2006



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