Brought to you by:

Table of contents

Volume 694

2016

Previous issue Next issue

13th South-East Asian Congress of Medical Physics 2015 (SEACOMP) 10–12 December 2015, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Accepted papers received: 23 February 2016
Published online: 24 March 2016

Preface

011001
The following article is Open access

These proceedings comprise selected, edited papers that were presented at the 13th SOUTH EAST ASIAN CONGRESS OF MEDICAL PHYSICS with the theme of "Improving the quality of human health through physics", held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 10-12 December 2015. It was hosted by Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN Sunan Kalijaga), Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and University of Indonesia (UI) in association with the South East Asia Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP).

Yogyakarta was the ancient capital of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta. It is famous for the UNESCO world heritage site of Borobudur temple. This temple was built in the 9th century during the reign of the Sailendra Dynasty. The temple was designed in the Javanese Buddhist architectural style. The monument was restored by the Indonesian government with UNESCO's help in 1975 and 1982.

The congress attracted about 241 participants from 13 countries. Twelve invited speakers delivered nine plenary lectures as well as four pre-congress workshops. A total of 86 oral and 65 poster presentations were given. A variety of topics were discussed, ranging from the most advanced topics such as proton therapy, image-guided radiotherapy, functional MRI to the more conventional ones such as dose distribution, simulation, dosimetry, quality assurance, etc.

In this proceedings papers are published under five categories, namely therapeutics, diagnostics, nuclear medicine, biomedical engineering and biophysics.

011002
The following article is Open access

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Papers

Therapeutics

012001
The following article is Open access

Our body contains 100 trillion cells. However, each cell has certain function and structure. For maintaining their integrity, cells will be collaborating with each other and with extracellular matrix surround them to form a tissue. These interactions effect internally on many networks or pathway such as signalling pathway, metabolic pathway and transport network in the cell. These networks interact with each other to maintain cell survival, cell structure and function and moreover the tissue as well as the organ which the cells built. Therefore, as part of a tissue, genetic and epigenetic abnormality of a cell can also alter these networks, and moreover disturb the function of the tissue itself. Hence, condition of genetic and epigenetic of the cell may affect other conditions in omics level such as transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomics characteristics which can be differentiated by a particular unique molecular profile from each level, which can be used for diagnostic as well as for targeted therapy.

012002
The following article is Open access

, and

Helical TomoTherapy(HT) planning depends on optimize parameters including field width (FW), pitch factor (PF) and modulation factor (MF). These optimize parameters are effect to quality of plans and treatment time. The aim of this study was to find the optimized parameters which compromise between plan quality and treatment times. Six nasopharyngeal cancer patients were used. For each patient data set, 18 treatment plans consisted of different optimize parameters combination (FW=5.0, 2.5, 1.0 cm; PF=0.43, 0.287, 0.215; MF2.0, 3.0) were created. The identical optimization procedure followed ICRU83 recommendations. The average D50 of both parotid glands and treatment times per fraction were compared for all plans. The study show treatment plan with FW1.0 cm showed the lowest average D50 of both parotid glands. The treatment time increased inversely to FW. The FW1.0 cm the average treatment time was 4 times longer than FW5.0 cm. PF was very little influence on the average D50 of both parotid glands. Finally, MF increased from 2.0 to 3.0 the average D50 of both parotid glands was slightly decreased. However, the average treatment time was increased 22.28%. For routine nasopharyngeal cancer patients with HT, we suggest the planning optimization parameters consist of FW=5.0 cm, PF=0.43 and MF=2.0.

012003
The following article is Open access

, , and

This study was done to investigate the verification technique of treatment plan quality assurance for brachytherapy. It is aimed to verify the point doses in 192Ir high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy between Oncentra Masterplan brachytherapy treatment planning system and independent calculation software at a region of rectum, bladder and prescription points for both pair ovoids and full catheter set ups. The Oncentra TPS output text files were automatically loaded into the verification programme that has been developed based on spreadsheets. The output consists of source coordinates, desired calculation point coordinates and the dwell time of a patient plan. The source strength and reference dates were entered into the programme and then dose point calculations were independently performed. The programme shows its results in a comparison of its calculated point doses with the corresponding Oncentra TPS outcome. From the total of 40 clinical cases that consisted of two fractions for 20 patients, the results that were given in term of percentage difference, it shows an agreement between TPS and independent calculation are in the range of 2%. This programme only takes a few minutes to be used is preferably recommended to be implemented as the verification technique in clinical brachytherapy dosimetry.

012004
The following article is Open access

, and

Radiation therapy for brain malignancy is done by giving a dose of radiation to a whole volume of the brain (WBRT) followed by a booster at the primary tumor with more advanced techniques. Two external radiation fields given from the right and left side. Because the shape of the head, there will be an unavoidable hotspot radiation dose of greater than 107%. This study aims to optimize planning of radiation therapy using field in field multi-leaf collimator technique. A study of 15 WBRT samples with CT slices is done by adding some segments of radiation in each field of radiation and delivering appropriate dose weighting using a TPS precise plan Elekta R 2.15. Results showed that this optimization a more homogeneous radiation on CTV target volume, lower dose in healthy tissue, and reduced hotspots in CTV target volume. Comparison results of field in field multi segmented MLC technique with standard conventional technique for WBRT are: higher average minimum dose (77.25% ± 0:47%) vs (60% ± 3:35%); lower average maximum dose (110.27% ± 0.26%) vs (114.53% ± 1.56%); lower hotspot volume (5.71% vs 27.43%); and lower dose on eye lenses (right eye: 9.52% vs 18.20%); (left eye: 8.60% vs 16.53%).

012005
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

The purpose of this study to determine the patient setup uncertainties in deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) radiation therapy for left breast cancer patients using real-time 3D surface tracking system. The six breast cancer patients treated by 6 MV photon beams from TrueBeam linear accelerator were selected. The patient setup errors and motion during treatment were observed and calculated for interfraction and intrafraction motions. The systematic and random errors were calculated in vertical, longitudinal and lateral directions. From 180 images tracking before and during treatment, the maximum systematic error of interfraction and intrafraction motions were 0.56 mm and 0.23 mm, the maximum random error of interfraction and intrafraction motions were 1.18 mm and 0.53 mm, respectively. The interfraction was more pronounce than the intrafraction, while the systematic error was less impact than random error. In conclusion the intrafraction motion error from patient setup uncertainty is about half of interfraction motion error, which is less impact due to the stability in organ movement from DIBH. The systematic reproducibility is also half of random error because of the high efficiency of modern linac machine that can reduce the systematic uncertainty effectively, while the random errors is uncontrollable.

012006
The following article is Open access

, and

This research was conducted by measuring point dose in the target area (lungs), heart, and spine using four dosimeters (PTW N30013, Exradin A16, TLD, and the Gafchromic EBT2 film). The measurement was performed in CIRS 002LFC thorax phantom. The main objective of this study was to compare the dosimetry of those different systems. Dose measurements performed only in a single fraction of irradiation. The measurements result shown that TLD has the least accuracy and precision. As the effect of volume averaging, ionization chamber reaches the discrepancy value up to -13.30% in the target area. EBT2 film has discrepancy value of <1% in the 3D-CRT and IMRT techniques. This dosimeter is proposed to be an appropriate alternative dosimeter to be used at point dose verification.

012007
The following article is Open access

, , , and

The organ and effective doses in image-guided radiotherapy system are determined in this study. For 2D imaging, incident air kerma (Ki) was measured by 6cc ionization chamber with Accu-Pro dosimeter. The entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) was calculated by multiplying Ki with backscatter factor. The effective dose was calculated by multiplying ESAK with conversion coefficient. For 3D imaging, computed tomography/cone-beam dose index (CTDI/CBDI) measurements were performed by using 100mm pencil ionization chamber with Accu-Pro dosimeter. The dose index in air and in CTDI phantom from planning CT and cone- beam CT were measured. Then, effective dose was calculated by ImPACT software. The effective doses from 2D conventional simulator for anteroposterior and lateral projections were 01 and 0.02mSv for head, 0.15 and 0.16mSv for thorax, 0.22 and 0.21mSv for pelvis, respectively. The effective doses from 3D, planning CT and CBCT, were 3.3 and 0.1mSv for head, 13 and 2.4mSv for thorax and 7.2 and 4.9mSv for pelvis, respectively. Based on 30 fractions of treatment course, total effective dose (3D CT, 2D setup verification and 6 times CBCT) of head, thorax and pelvis were 3.93, 27.71 and 37.03mSv, respectively. Therefore, IGRT should be administered with significant parameters to reduce the dose.

012008
The following article is Open access

, and

The high complexity of dose calculation in treatment planning and accurate delivery of IMRT plan need high precision of verification method. The purpose of this study is to investigate error detection capability of patient specific QA tools for IMRT plans. The two H&N and two prostate IMRT plans with MapCHECK2 and portal dosimetry QA tools were studied. Measurements were undertaken for original and modified plans with errors introduced. The intentional errors composed of prescribed dose (±2 to ±6%) and position shifting in X-axis and Y-axis (±1 to ±5mm). After measurement, gamma pass between original and modified plans were compared. The average gamma pass for original H&N and prostate plans were 98.3% and 100% for MapCHECK2 and 95.9% and 99.8% for portal dosimetry, respectively. In H&N plan, MapCHECK2 can detect position shift errors starting from 3mm while portal dosimetry can detect errors started from 2mm. Both devices showed similar sensitivity in detection of position shift error in prostate plan. For H&N plan, MapCHECK2 can detect dose errors starting at ±4%, whereas portal dosimetry can detect from ±2%. For prostate plan, both devices can identify dose errors starting from ±4%. Sensitivity of error detection depends on type of errors and plan complexity.

012009
The following article is Open access

and

Tumor motion due to patient's respiratory is a significant problem in radiotherapy treatment of lung cancer. The purpose of this project is to study the interplay effect through dosimetry verification between the calculated and delivered dose, as well as the dosimetric impact of leaf interplay with breathing-induced tumor motion in IMRT and VMAT treatment. In this study, a dynamic thorax phantom was designed and constructed for dosimetry measurement. The phantom had a linear sinusoidal tumor motion toward superior-inferior direction with variation of amplitudes and periods. TLD-100 LiF:Mg,Ti and Gafchromic EBT2 film were used to measure dose in the midpoint target and the spinal cord. The IMRT and VMAT treatment had prescription dose of 200 cGy per fraction. The dosimetric impact due to interplay effect during IMRT and VMAT treatment were resulted in the range of 0.5% to -6.6% and 0.9% to -5.3% of target dose reduction, respectively. Meanwhile, mean dose deviation of spinal cord in IMRT and VMAT treatment were around 1.0% to -6.9% and 0.9% to -6.3%, respectively. The results showed that if respiratory management technique were not implemented, the presence of lung tumor motion during dose delivery in IMRT and VMAT treatment causes dose discrepancies inside tumor volume.

012010
The following article is Open access

and

Radiotherapy treatment depends on the accuracy of the dose delivery to patients, the purpose of the study is to verify the dose in IMRT and VMAT technique in prostate cancer cases correspond to TPS dose using phantom base on ICRU No.50. The dose verification of the target and OAR was performed by placing the TLD Rod LiF100 and EBT2 Gafchromic film at slab hole of pelvic part of the Alderson RANDO phantom for prostate cancer simulation. The Exposed TLDs was evaluated using the TLD Reader Harshaw while EBT2 film was scanned using Epson scanner. The point dose measurements were compared between planned dose and measured dose at target volume and OAR. The result is the dose difference at target volume, bladder and rectum for IMRT and VMAT are less than 5%. On the other hand, the dose difference at the Femoral head is more than 5% for both techniques because the location of OAR already in low gradient dose. Furthermore, the difference dose of the target volume for IMRT technique tends to be smaller than VMAT either for TLD and EBT2 film detectors. From the measurement showed that the delivered dose on the phantom simulation match with ICRU No.50 criteria.

012011
The following article is Open access

, and

The development of pre-treatment QA tools contributes to the three dimension (3D) dose verification using the calculation software with the measured planar dose distribution. This research is aimed to evaluate the Sun Nuclear 3DVH software with Thermo luminescence dosimeter (TLD) measurement. The two VMAT patient plans (2.5 arcs) of 6 MV photons with different PTV locations were transferred to the Rando phantom images. The PTV of the first plan located in homogeneous area and vice versa in the second plan. For treatment planning process, the Rando phantom images were employed in optimization and calculation with the PTV, brain stem, lens and TLD position contouring. The verification plans were created, transferred to the ArcCHECK for measurement and calculated the 3D dose using 3DVH software. The range of the percent dose differences in both PTV and organ at risk (OAR) between TLD and 3DVH software of the first and the second plans were -2.09 to 3.87% and -1.39 to 6.88%, respectively. The mean percent dose differences for the PTV were 1.62% and 3.93% for the first and the second plans, respectively. In conclusion, the 3DVH software results show good agreement with TLD when the tumor located in the homogeneous area.

012012
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Treatment interruption is not uncommon in radiotherapy. Common reasons for treatment interruption include machine breakdown, holidays and patient severe radiation reactions. Here RTtxGap, an Android application to assist calculations of compensation for treatment gap, is reported. It uses linear quadratic (LQ) model to calculate the biological effective dose (BED) that is used to solve for treatment gap compensations. Solutions are calculated using BED equation, with consideration for tissue proliferation. The accuracy of results has been verified using LQL Equiv software to be accurate within 1%. Five treatment interruption examples were used to illustrate the capability of the software to calculate the treatment compensation schedules. Solving these examples also illustrates the general consensus regarding compensating for unscheduled treatment interruptions, which ultimately involves balancing the BEDs of tumour and organ at risk. In addition to compensation for treatment gap, RTtxGap can also be used to calculate equivalent total dose in 2-Gy fraction (EQD2), to modify treatment schedule and to calculate alternative dose prescriptions having the same isoeffect.

012013
The following article is Open access

and

The most challenging task in the Monte Carlo modelling of linear accelerators (linacs) is an accurate determination of the electron beam parameters striking the target which are characterised by the mean energy of incident electron beam and the electron beam shape, referred to as the focal spot. This work aims to determine the optimum focal spot size and shape of Elekta Axesse linac equipped with the Beam Modulator. A BEAMnrc Monte-Carlo linac model has been developed to produce a 6 MV photon beam. Different square field sizes of 2.4 cm, 4 cm and 10.4 cm were simulated in a simple water phantom with a source-to-surface distance of 100 cm. The simulation was performed with the incident electron beam energy of 6.2 MeV with the focal spot size varied between 0.1 and 0.3 cm with an increment of 0.05 cm. The field width (50% relative dose) and penumbra width (distance between 80% - 20% relative dose) of the simulated profiles were compared with the measured profiles. This work found that an elliptical shape of the focal spot results in a better match with the measured data with the size of 0.2 cm in X-axis and 0.3 cm in Y-axis direction.

012014
The following article is Open access

, and

IMRT and VMAT have been widely implemented on breast cancer and NPC cases. Dose verification was conducted to ensure the comparison between dose delivered and prescribe dose in TPS to obtain optimal results and the dose delivered. The gafchromic films measurement was done for breast and NPC simulation on RANDO Phantom, irradiating film by 6 MV photon with 200 cGy and scanned with EPSON V700 using 72 dpi. Dose distribution was calculated using the MATLAB-based in-house algorithm. In order to evaluate the gamma index, gafchromic films and MatriXX 2D array were placed in the Multi Cube and irradiated with EPID in same position. Dose distribution differences for IMRT and VMAT with modalities to TPS on film was 5.34% and 6.68% for NPC PTV70; 12.81% and 6.15% for NPC PTV50; 11.14% and 10.80% for breast cancer. Gamma index differences on IMRT with modalities to MatriXX 2D array and EPID was -0.09% and 5.13% for NPC; 0.51% and 2.28% for breast cancer. On the other hand, gamma index difference on VMAT was -1.65% and 1.43% for NPC; 0.19% and 4.38% for breast cancer. This measurement method can be used to verify dose for breast cancer and NPC cases in IMRT and VMAT.

012015
The following article is Open access

, , and

During stereotactic body radiotherapy, high radiation dose (∼60 Gy) is delivered to the tumour in small fractionation regime. In this study, the dosimetric characteristics were studied using radiochromic film during respiratory-gated and non-gated lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Specifically, the effect of respiratory cycle and amplitude, as well as gating window on the dosimetry were studied. In this study, the dose profiles along the irradiated area were measured. The dose profiles for respiratory-gated radiation delivery with different respiratory or tumour motion amplitudes, gating windows and respiratory time per cycle were in agreement with static radiation delivery. The respiratory gating system was able to deliver the radiation dose accurately (±1.05 mm) in the longitudinal direction. Although the treatment time for respiratory-gated SBRT was prolonged, this approach can potentially reduce the margin for internal tumour volume without compromising the tumour coverage. In addition, the normal tissue sparing effect can be improved.

012016
The following article is Open access

, , and

This study presents our preliminary work of the computed tomography (CT) image guided brachytherapy (IGBT) implementation on cervical cancer patients. We developed a protocol in which patients undergo two Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) examinations; a) prior to external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and b) prior to intra-cavitary brachytherapy for tumour identification and delineation during IGBT planning and dosimetry. For each fraction, patients were simulated using CT simulator and images were transferred to the treatment planning system. The HR-CTV, IR-CTV, bladder and rectum were delineated on CT-based contouring for cervical cancer. Plans were optimised to achieve HR-CTV and IR-CTV dose (D90) of total EQD2 80Gy and 60Gy respectively, while limiting the minimum dose to the most irradiated 2cm3 volume (D2cc) of bladder and rectum to total EQD2 90Gy and 75Gy respectively. Data from seven insertions were analysed by comparing the volume-based with traditional point- based doses. Based on our data, there were differences between volume and point doses of HR- CTV, bladder and rectum organs. As the number of patients having the CT-based IGBT increases from day to day in our centre, it is expected that the treatment and dosimetry accuracy will be improved with the implementation.

012017
The following article is Open access

, and

Accurate calculation of dose distribution affected by inhomogeneity tissue is required in radiotherapy planning. This study was performed to determine the ratio between radiotherapy planning using 3D-CRT, IMRT, and SBRT based on a calibrated curve of CT-number in the lung for different target's shape in 3D-CRT, IMRT, and spinal cord for SBRT. Calibration curves of CT-number were generated under measurement basis and introduced into TPS, then planning was performed for 3D-CRT, IMRT, and SBRT with 7, and 15 radiation fields. Afterwards, planning evaluation was performed by comparing the DVH curve, HI, and CI. 3D-CRT and IMRT produced the lowest HI at calibration curve of CIRS 002LFC with the value 0.24 and 10. Whereas SBRT produced the lowest HI on a linear calibration curve with a value of 0.361. The highest CI in IMRT and SBRT technique achieved using a linear calibration curve was 0.97 and 1.77 respectively. For 3D-CRT, the highest CI was obtained by using calibration curve of CIRS 062M with the value of 0.45. From the results of CI and HI, it is concluded that the calibration curve of CT-number does not significantly differ with Schneider's calibrated curve, and inverse planning gives a better result than forward planning.

012018
The following article is Open access

, and

Nowadays the radiochromic film is widely used to obtain dose distribution in two dimensions with high spatial resolution, less energy dependence and near tissue equivalent. It can be a commissioning tool to verify high dose gradient of dose distribution for IMRT and VMAT techniques. However, the film scanner could affect the accuracy of dose distribution if lack of precaution. In this study, the comparison between Epson perfection V700 and Vidar Dosimetry Pro Advantage (RED) is evaluated in terms of the capability to verify the 2D dose distribution for conventional and VMAT techniques. The Gafchromic® EBT2 films were read from two types of scanners (Epson perfection V700 and Vidar Dosimetry Pro Advantage) for volumetric modulated radiation therapy (VMAT) dosimetry. The software for analyzing the results of Epson perfection V700 and Vidar Dosimetry Pro Advantage are SNC Patient software and Omnipro' IMRT software, respectively. Comparisons between measured and calculated dose distributions are reported as %passing rate and the gamma index for tolerance parameters of 3% and 3mm. The study found that the %passing rate obtained from Vidar scanner and Epson V700 scanner compared with Eclipse treatment planning system is more than 98% with the criteria of (3%/3mm).

012019
The following article is Open access

, and

In order to improve the life's quality for a cancer patient, the radiation techniques are constantly evolving. Especially, the two modern techniques which are intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) are quite promising. They comprise of many small beam sizes (beamlets) with various intensities to achieve the intended radiation dose to the tumor and minimal dose to the nearby normal tissue. The study investigates whether the microDiamond detector (PTW manufacturer), a synthetic single crystal diamond detector, is suitable for small field output factor measurement. The results were compared with those measured by the stereotactic field detector (SFD) and the Monte Carlo simulation (EGSnrc/BEAMnrc/DOSXYZ). The calibration of Monte Carlo simulation was done using the percentage depth dose and dose profile measured by the photon field detector (PFD) of the 10×10 cm2 field size with 100 cm SSD. Comparison of the values obtained from the calculations and measurements are consistent, no more than 1% difference. The output factors obtained from the microDiamond detector have been compared with those of SFD and Monte Carlo simulation, the results demonstrate the percentage difference of less than 2%.

012020
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

High energy medical accelerators are commonly used in radiotherapy to increase the effectiveness of treatments. As we know neutrons can be emitted from a medical accelerator if there is an incident of X-ray that hits any of its materials. This issue becomes a point of view of many researchers. The neutron contamination has caused many problems such as image resolution and radiation protection for patients and radio oncologists. This study concerns the simulation of neutron contamination emitted from Varian Clinac iX 10 MV using Monte Carlo code system. As neutron production process is very complex, Monte Carlo simulation with MCNPX code system was carried out to study this contamination. The design of this medical accelerator was modelled based on the actual materials and geometry. The maximum energy of photons and neutron in the scoring plane was 10.5 and 2.239 MeV, respectively. The number and energy of the particles produced depend on the depth and distance from beam axis. From these results, it is pointed out that the neutron produced by linac 10 MV photon beam in a typical treatment is not negligible.

012021
The following article is Open access

, and

The aim of radiotherapy is to deliver high radiation dose to the tumor with low radiation dose to healthy tissues. Protons have Bragg peaks that give high radiation dose to the tumor but low exit dose or dose tail. Therefore, proton therapy is promising for treating deep- seated tumors and tumors locating close to organs at risk. Moreover, the physical characteristic of protons is suitable for treating cancer in pediatric patients. This work developed a computational platform for calculating proton dose distribution using the Monte Carlo (MC) technique and patient's anatomical data. The studied case is a pediatric patient with a primary brain tumor. PHITS will be used for MC simulation. Therefore, patient-specific CT-DICOM files were converted to the PHITS input. A MATLAB optimization program was developed to create a beam delivery control file for this study. The optimization program requires the proton beam data. All these data were calculated in this work using analytical formulas and the calculation accuracy was tested, before the beam delivery control file is used for MC simulation. This study will be useful for researchers aiming to investigate proton dose distribution in patients but do not have access to proton therapy machines.

012022
The following article is Open access

, and

The purpose of this study is to compare the build-up region doses on breast Rando phantom surface with the bolus covered, the doses in breast Rando phantom and also the doses in a lung that is the heterogeneous region by two algorithms. The AAA in Eclipse TPS and the collapsed cone convolution algorithm in Pinnacle treatment planning system were used to plan in tangential field technique with 6 MV photon beam at 200 cGy total doses in Breast Rando phantom with bolus covered (5 mm and 10 mm). TLDs were calibrated with Cobalt-60 and used to measure the doses in irradiation process. The results in treatment planning show that the doses in build-up region and the doses in breast phantom were closely matched in both algorithms which are less than 2% differences. However, overestimate of doses in a lung (L2) were found in AAA with 13.78% and 6.06% differences at 5 mm and 10 mm bolus thickness, respectively when compared with CCC algorithm. The TLD measurements show the underestimate in buildup region and in breast phantom but the doses in a lung (L2) were overestimated when compared with the doses in the two plannings at both thicknesses of the bolus.

012023
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

In radiotherapy, medical linear accelerator (Linac) is the key system used for radiation treatments delivery. Although, recommissioning was recommended after major modification of the machine by AAPM TG53, but it might not be practical in radiotherapy center with heavy workloads. The main purpose of this study was to compare photon beam physical data between initial commissioning and recommissioning of 6 MV Elekta Precise linac. The parameters for comparing were the percentage depth dose (PDD) and beam profiles. The clinical commissioning test cases followed IAEA-TECDOC-1583 were planned on REF 91230 IMRT Dose Verification Phantom by Philips' Pinnacle treatment planning system. The Delta4PT was used for dose distribution verification with 90% passing criteria of the gamma index (3%/3mm). Our results revealed that the PDDs and beam profiles agreed within a tolerance limit recommended by TRS430. Most of the point doses and dose distribution verification passed the acceptance criteria. This study showed the consistency of photon beam physical data after recommissioning process. There was a good agreement between initial commissioning and recommissioning within a tolerance limit, demonstrated that the full recommissioning process might not be required. However, in the complex treatment planning geometry, the initial data should be applied with great caution.

012024
The following article is Open access

, , and

Inhomogeneity correction is recommended for accurate dose calculation in radiotherapy treatment planning since human body are highly inhomogeneous with the presence of bones and air cavities. However, each dose calculation algorithm has its own limitations. This study is to assess the accuracy of five algorithms that are currently implemented for treatment planning, including pencil beam convolution (PBC), superposition (SP), anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA), Monte Carlo (MC) and Acuros XB (AXB). The calculated dose was compared with the measured dose using radiochromic film (Gafchromic EBT2) in inhomogeneous phantoms. In addition, the dosimetric impact of different algorithms on intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) was studied for head and neck region. MC had the best agreement with the measured percentage depth dose (PDD) within the inhomogeneous region. This was followed by AXB, AAA, SP and PBC. For IMRT planning, MC algorithm is recommended for treatment planning in preference to PBC and SP. The MC and AXB algorithms were found to have better accuracy in terms of inhomogeneity correction and should be used for tumour volume within the proximity of inhomogeneous structures.

012025
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Pre-treatment patient specific quality assurance (QA) of advanced treatment techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is one of important QA in radiotherapy. The fast and reliable dosimetric device is required. The objective of this study is to commission and validate the performance of COMPASS system for dose verification of VMAT technique. The COMPASS system is composed of an array of ionization detectors (MatriXX) mounted to the gantry using a custom holder and software for the analysis and visualization of QA results. We validated the COMPASS software for basic and advanced clinical application. For the basic clinical study, the simple open field in various field sizes were validated in homogeneous phantom. And the advanced clinical application, the fifteen prostate and fifteen nasopharyngeal cancers VMAT plans were chosen to study. The treatment plans were measured by the MatriXX. The doses and dose-volume histograms (DVHs) reconstructed from the fluence measurements were compared to the TPS calculated plans. And also, the doses and DVHs computed using collapsed cone convolution (CCC) Algorithm were compared with Eclipse TPS calculated plans using Analytical Anisotropic Algorithm (AAA) that according to dose specified in ICRU 83 for PTV.

012026
The following article is Open access

, , , and

The purpose of this study is to determine the dose delivery effect of the different Beam ON interval in Flattening Filter Free Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (FFF-SBRT). The three 10MV-FFF SBRT plans (2 half rotating Rapid Arc, 9 to10 Gray/Fraction) were selected and irradiated in three different intervals (100%, 50% and 25%) using the RPM gating system. The plan verification was performed by the ArcCHECK for gamma analysis and the ionization chamber for point dose measurement. The dose delivery time of each interval were observed. For gamma analysis (2%&2mm criteria), the average percent pass of all plans for 100%, 50% and 25% intervals were 86.1±3.3%, 86.0±3.0% and 86.1±3.3%, respectively. For point dose measurement, the average ratios of each interval to the treatment planning were 1.012±0.015, 1.011±0.014 and 1.011±0.013 for 100%, 50% and 25% interval, respectively. The average dose delivery time was increasing from 74.3±5.0 second for 100% interval to 154.3±12.6 and 347.9±20.3 second for 50% and 25% interval, respectively. The same quality of the dose delivery from different Beam ON intervals in FFF-SBRT by TrueBEAM was illustrated. While the 100% interval represents the breath-hold treatment technique, the differences for the free-breathing using RPM gating system can be treated confidently.

012027
The following article is Open access

, , and

The study aimed to determine appropriate detectors for output factor measurement of small fields in 6 and 10 MV flattening filter free photon beams using five different detectors. Field sizes were varied between 0.6 × 0.6 and 4.0 × 4.0 cm2. An indirect method (daisy-chaining) was applied to normalize the output factors. For the smallest field size, the variations of output factors compared among the detectors were 13%. Exradin A16 had the lowest output factor and increasing in sequence with CC01, microDiamond, microLion and EDGE detectors, respectively, for both energies. The similarity between CC01 and microDiamond output factor values were within 1.6% and 1% for all field sizes of 6 and 10 MV FFF, respectively. EDGE and microLion presented the highest values while ExradinA16 gave lowest values. In conclusion, IBACC01, Exradin A16, microLion, microDiamond and EDGE detectors seem to be the detectors of choices for small field output factor measurement of FFF beams down to 1.6 × 1.6 cm2. However, we could not guarantee which detector is the most suitable for output factor measurement in small field less than 1.6 × 1.6 cm2 of FFF beams. Further studies are required to provide reference information for validation purposes.

012028
The following article is Open access

, and

Radiosensitizer is a material that can increase the effects of radiation in radiotherapy application. Various materials with high effective atomic number have been developed as a radiosensitizer, such as metal, iron oxide and quantum dot. In this study, ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles are included in iron oxide class were synthesized by precipitation method from the solution of zinc nitrate and ferrite nitrate and followed by calcination at 700° C for 3 hours. The XRD pattern shows that most of the observed peaks can be indexed to the cubic phase of ZnFe2O4 with a lattice parameter of 8.424 Å. SEM image reveals that nanoparticles are the sphere-like shape with size in the range 84-107 nm. The ability of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles as radiosensitizer was examined by loading those nanoparticles into Escherichia coli cell culture which irradiated with photon energy of 6 MV at a dose of 2 Gy. ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles showed ability to increase the absorbed dose by 0.5 to 1.0 cGy/g. In addition, the presence of 1 g/L ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles resulted in an increase radiation effect by 6.3% higher than if exposed to radiation only. These results indicated that ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles can be used as the radiosensitizer for increasing radiation effect in radiotherapy.

012029
The following article is Open access

, , , and

DSSuperDose v.1.0 is an in-house treatment planning system (TPS) developed by Medical Physics and Biophysics Laboratory (LFMB) Universitas Indonesia as a treatment planning software for Cobalt-60 teletherapy unit. The main objective of this study was the validation of in-house TPS calculation as an essential part in quality assurance (QA) of radiotherapy. Validation of an in-house TPS was performed with two Cobalt-60 teletherapy units by comparison between in-house TPS and ISIS TPS and by measurements of absorbed dose. Mean dose deviations between in-house TPS and measurement were (1.97 ± 2.42)% for open field, (1.32 ± 1.30)% for tray field, and (2.91 ± 2.36)% for wedge field treatments. In-house TPS provide optimal planning for open and tray beam conditions with depth fewer than 10 cm (≤ 10 cm) and field sizes up to 20×20 cm2, while for wedge beam conditions with field sizes fewer than the physical size of the wedge. Comparison of in-house TPS and ISIS TPS demonstrated a good match of 96%. From the results, it is concluded that DSSuperDose v.1.0 is adequately accurate for treatment planning of radiotherapy.

Diagnostics

012030
The following article is Open access

, , , and

The purpose of this study is to automatically calculate and then investigate the size- specific dose estimate (SSDE) in thoracic and head CT examinations undertaken using standard imaging protocols. The effective diameter (Deff), the water equivalent diameter (Dw), and the SSDE were calculated automatically from patient images. We investigated sixteen adult patients who underwent a CT head examination and thirty adult patients who underwent a CT thorax examination. Our results showed that the Dw value in the thoracic region was 4.5% lower than the value of Deff, while the Dw value in the head region was 8.6% higher than the value of Deff. The relationships between diameter (Deff and Dw) and CTDIvol were distinctive. In the head region, decreasing the patient diameter resulted in a constant CTDIvol due to the tube current modulation (TCM) being off, while in the thoracic region decreasing the patient diameter resulted in a decrease in value of CTDIvol due to TCM being on. In the head region, decreasing the patient diameter resulted in an increase in the value of SSDE, while in the thoracic region decreasing the patient diameter resulted in a decrease in the value of SSDE.

012031
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

In this paper, we evaluate the level of knowledge and awareness among 120 radiology personnel working in 7 public hospitals in Johor, Malaysia, concerning Computed Tomography (CT) technology and radiation doses based on a set of questionnaires. Subjects were divided into two groups (Medical profession (Med, n=32) and Allied health profession (AH, n=88). The questionnaires are addressed: (1) demographic data (2) relative radiation dose and (3) knowledge of current CT technology. One-third of respondents from both groups were able to estimate relative radiation dose for routine CT examinations. 68% of the allied health profession personnel knew of the Malaysia regulations entitled 'Basic Safety Standard (BSS) 2010', although notably 80% of them had previously attended a radiation protection course. No significant difference (p < 0.05) in mean scores of CT technology knowledge detected between the two groups, with the medical professions producing a mean score of (26.7 ± 2.7) and the allied health professions a mean score of (25.2 ± 4.3). This study points to considerable variation among the respondents concerning their understanding of knowledge and awareness of risks of radiation and CT optimization techniques.

012032
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is a type of fluoroscopy technique used in interventional radiology to clearly visualize blood vessels in a bony or dense soft tissue environment. The use of DSA procedures has been increased quite significantly in the Radiology departments in various cities in Indonesia. Various reports showed that both patients and medical staff received a noticeable radiation dose during the course of this procedure. A study had been carried out to measure these doses among interventionalist, nurse and radiographer. The results show that the interventionalist and the nurse, who stood quite close to the X-ray beams compared with the radiographer, received radiation higher than the others. The results also showed that the radiation dose received by medical staff were var depending upon the duration and their position against the X-ray beams. Compared tothe dose limits, however, the radiation dose received by all these three medical staff were still lower than the limits.

012033
The following article is Open access

, , , , , and

Radiation doses from computed tomography (CT) are the highest and most hazardous compared to other imaging modalities. This study aimed to evaluate radiation dose in Johor, Malaysia to patients during computed tomography examinations of the brain, chest and abdomen and to establish the local diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) as are present with the current, state- of-art, multi-slice CT scanners. Survey forms were sent to five centres performing CT to obtain data regarding acquisition parameters as well as the dose information from CT consoles. CT- EXPO (Version 2.3.1, Germany) was used to validate the dose information. The proposed DRLs were indicated by rounding the third quartiles of whole dose distributions where mean values of CTDIw (mGy), CTDIvol (mGy) and DLP (mGy.cm) were comparable with other reference levels; 63, 63, and 1015 respectively for CT Brain; 15, 14, and 450 respectively for CT thorax and 16, 17, and 590 respectively for CT abdomen. The study revealed that the CT practice and dose output were revolutionised, and must keep up with the pace of introductory technology. We suggest that CTDIvol should be included in current national DRLs, as modern CTs are configured with a higher number of detectors and are independent of pitch factors.

012034
The following article is Open access

, , , and

The profile of the CT scan output dose is crucial for establishing the patient dose profile. The purpose of this study is to investigate the profile of the CT scan output dose in both axial and helical modes using convolution. A single scan output dose profile (SSDP) in the center of a head phantom was measured using a solid-state detector. The multiple scan output dose profile (MSDP) in the axial mode was calculated using convolution between SSDP and delta function, whereas for the helical mode MSDP was calculated using convolution between SSDP and the rectangular function. MSDPs were calculated for a number of scans (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25). The multiple scan average dose (MSAD) for differing numbers of scans was compared to the value of CT dose index (CTDI). Finally, the edge values of MSDP for every scan number were compared to the corresponding MSAD values. MSDPs were successfully generated by using convolution between a SSDP and the appropriate function. We found that CTDI only accurately estimates MSAD when the number of scans was more than 10. We also found that the edge values of the profiles were 42% to 93% lower than that the corresponding MSADs.

012035
The following article is Open access

, , , , , and

The demand of interventional radiology has increased, leading to significant risk of radiation where eye lens dose assessment becomes a major concern. In this study, we investigate physicians' eye lens doses during interventional procedures. Measurement were made using TLD-100 (LiF: Mg, Ti) dosimeters and was recorded in equivalent dose at a depth of 0.07 mm, Hp(0.07). Annual Hp(0.07) and annual effective dose were estimated using workload estimation for a year and Von Boetticher algorithm. Our results showed the mean Hp(0.07) dose of 0.33 mSv and 0.20 mSv for left and right eye lens respectively. The highest estimated annual eye lens dose was 29.33 mSv per year, recorded on left eye lens during fistulogram procedure. Five physicians had exceeded 20 mSv dose limit as recommended by international commission of radiological protection (ICRP). It is suggested that frequent training and education on occupational radiation exposure are necessary to increase knowledge and awareness of the physicians' thus reducing dose during the interventional procedure.

012036
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Several studies have differentiated Alzheimer's disease (AD) using cerebral image features derived from MR brain images. In this study, we were interested in combining hippocampus and amygdala volumes and entorhinal cortex thickness to improve the performance of AD differentiation. Thus, our objective was to investigate the useful features obtained from MRI for classification of AD patients using support vector machine (SVM). T1-weighted MR brain images of 100 AD patients and 100 normal subjects were processed using FreeSurfer software to measure hippocampus and amygdala volumes and entorhinal cortex thicknesses in both brain hemispheres. Relative volumes of hippocampus and amygdala were calculated to correct variation in individual head size. SVM was employed with five combinations of features (H: hippocampus relative volumes, A: amygdala relative volumes, E: entorhinal cortex thicknesses, HA: hippocampus and amygdala relative volumes and ALL: all features). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the method. AUC values of five combinations were 0.8575 (H), 0.8374 (A), 0.8422 (E), 0.8631 (HA) and 0.8906 (ALL). Although "ALL" provided the highest AUC, there were no statistically significant differences among them except for "A" feature. Our results showed that all suggested features may be feasible for computer-aided classification of AD patients.

012037
The following article is Open access

, and

Compromise between radiation dose and image quality is essential in the use of CT imaging. CT dose index (CTDI) is currently the primary dosimetric formalisms in CT scan, while the low and high contrast resolutions are aspects indicating the image quality. This study was aimed to estimate CTDIvol and image quality measures through a range of exposure parameters variation. CTDI measurements were performed using PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) phantom of 16 cm diameter, while the image quality test was conducted by using catphan ® 600. CTDI measurements were carried out according to IAEA TRS 457 protocol using axial scan mode, under varied parameters of tube voltage, collimation or slice thickness, and tube current. Image quality test was conducted accordingly under the same exposure parameters with CTDI measurements. An Android™ based software was also result of this study. The software was designed to estimate the value of CTDIvol with maximum difference compared to actual CTDIvol measurement of 8.97%. Image quality can also be estimated through CNR parameter with maximum difference to actual CNR measurement of 21.65%.

012038
The following article is Open access

, and

Daily QC tests performed on screen film mammography (SFM) equipment are essential to ensure that both SFM unit and film processor are working in a consistent manner. The Breast Imaging Unit of USTH-Benavides Cancer Institute has been conducting QC following the test protocols in the IAEA Human Health Series No.2 manual. However, the availability of Leeds breast phantom (CRP E13039) in the facility made the task easier. Instead of carrying out separate tests on AEC constancy and light sensitometry, only one exposure of the phantom is done to accomplish the two tests. It was observed that measurements made on mAs output and optical densities (ODs) using the Leeds TOR (MAX) phantom are comparable with that obtained from the usual conduct of tests, taking into account the attenuation characteristic of the phantom. Image quality parameters such as low contrast and high contrast details were also evaluated from the phantom image. The authors recognize the usefulness of the phantom in determining technical factors that will help improve detection of smallest pathological details on breast images. The phantom is also convenient for daily QC monitoring and economical since less number of films is expended.

012039
The following article is Open access

, and

To determine the average glandular dose and entrance surface air kerma in both phantoms and patients to assess image quality for different target-filters (W/Rh and W/Ag) in digital mammography system. The compressed breast thickness, compression force, average glandular dose, entrance surface air kerma, peak kilovoltage and tube current time were recorded and compared between W/Rh and W/Ag target filter. The CNR and the figure of merit were used to determine the effect of target filter on image quality. The mean AGD of the W/Rh target filter was 1.75 mGy, the mean ESAK was 6.67 mGy, the mean CBT was 54.1 mm, the mean CF was 14 1bs. The mean AGD of W/Ag target filter was 2.7 mGy, the mean ESAK was 12.6 mGy, the mean CBT was 75.5 mm, the mean CF was 15 1bs. In phantom study, the AGD was 1.2 mGy at 4 cm, 3.3 mGy at 6 cm and 3.83 mGy at 7 cm thickness. The FOM was 24.6, CNR was 9.02 at thickness 6 cm. The FOM was 18.4, CNR was 8.6 at thickness 7 cm. The AGD from Digital Mammogram system with W/Rh of thinner CBT was lower than the AGD from W/Ag target filter.

012040
The following article is Open access

, , and

The aim of this research was to calculate Size Specific Dose Estimates (SSDE) generated by the varian OBI CBCT v1.4 X-ray tube working at 100 kV using EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulations. The EGSnrc Monte Carlo code used in this simulation was divided into two parts. Phase space file data resulted by the first part simulation became an input to the second part. This research was performed with varying phantom diameters of 5 to 35 cm and varying phantom lengths of 10 to 25 cm. Dose distribution data were used to calculate SSDE values using trapezoidal rule (trapz) function in a Matlab program. SSDE obtained from this calculation was compared to that in AAPM report and experimental data. It was obtained that the normalization of SSDE value for each phantom diameter was between 1.00 and 3.19. The normalization of SSDE value for each phantom length was between 0.96 and 1.07. The statistical error in this simulation was 4.98% for varying phantom diameters and 5.20% for varying phantom lengths. This study demonstrated the accuracy of the Monte Carlo technique in simulating the dose calculation. In the future, the influence of cylindrical phantom material to SSDE would be studied.

012041
The following article is Open access

and

The 64-row multidetector computed tomography angiography (64-MDCTA) provides vascular image quality of the brain similar to digital subtraction angiography (DSA), but the effective dose of CTA is lower than DSA studied in phantom. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effective dose from 64-MDCTA and DSA. Effective dose (according to ICRP 103) from 64-MDCTA and DSA flat panel detector for cerebral vessels examination of the brain using standard protocols as recommended by the manufacturer was calculated for 30 cases of MDCTA (15 male and 15 female).The mean patient age was 49.5 (23-89) yrs. 30 cases of DSA (14 male and 16 female), the mean patient age was 46.8 (21-81) yrs. For CTA, the mean effective dose was 3.7 (2.82- 5.19) mSv. For DSA, the mean effective dose was 5.78 (3.3-10.06) mSv. The effective dose of CTA depends on the scanning protocol and scan length. Low tube current can reduce patient dose whereas the number of exposures and number of series in 3D rotational angiography (3D RA) resulted in increasing effective dose in DSA patients.

012042
The following article is Open access

and

Diagnosis of macular degeneration using a Stratus OCT with a fast macular thickness map (FMTM) method produced six B-scan images of macula from different angles. The images were converted into a retinal thickness chart to be evaluated by normal distribution percentile of data so that it can be classified as normal thickness of macula or as experiencing abnormality (e.g. thickening and thinning). Unfortunately, the diagnostic images only represent the retinal thickness in several areas of the macular region. Thus, this study is aims to obtain the entire retinal thickness in the macula area from Status OCT's output images. Basically, the volumetric image is obtained by combining each of the six images. Reconstruction consists of a series of processes such as pre-processing, segmentation, and interpolation. Linear interpolation techniques are used to fill the empty pixels in reconstruction matrix. Based on the results, this method is able to provide retinal thickness maps on the macula surface and the macula 3D image. Retinal thickness map can display the macula area which experienced abnormalities. The macula 3D image can show the layers of tissue in the macula that is abnormal. The system built cannot replace ophthalmologist in decision making in term of diagnosis.

012043
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Gliomas are tumours arising from the interstitial tissue of the brain which are heterogeneous, infiltrative and possess ill-defined borders. Tumour subregions (e.g. solid enhancing part, edema and necrosis) are often used for tumour characterisation. Tumour demarcation into substructures facilitates glioma staging and provides essential information. Manual segmentation had several drawbacks that include laborious, time consuming, subjected to intra and inter-rater variability and hindered by diversity in the appearance of tumour tissues. In this work, active contour model (ACM) was used to segment the solid enhancing subregion of the tumour. 2D brain image acquisition data using 3T MRI fast spoiled gradient echo sequence in post gadolinium of four histologically proven high-grade glioma patients were obtained. Preprocessing of the images which includes subtraction and skull stripping were performed and then followed by ACM segmentation. The results of the automatic segmentation method were compared against the manual delineation of the tumour by a trainee radiologist. Both results were further validated by an experienced neuroradiologist and a brief quantitative evaluations (pixel area and difference ratio) were performed. Preliminary results of the clinical data showed the potential of ACM model in the application of fast and large scale tumour segmentation in medical imaging.

012044
The following article is Open access

and

Image processing is important in diagnosing diseases or damages of human organs. One of the important stages of image processing is segmentation process. Segmentation is a separation process of the image into regions of certain similar characteristics. It is used to simplify the image to make an analysis easier. The case raised in this study is image segmentation of bones. Bone's image segmentation is a way to get bone dimensions, which is needed in order to make prosthesis that is used to treat broken or cracked bones. Segmentation methods chosen in this study are fast marching and geodesic active contours. This study uses ITK (Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit) software. The success of the segmentation was then determined by calculating its accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Based on the results, the Active Contours method has slightly higher accuracy and sensitivity values than the fast marching method. As for the value of specificity, fast marching has produced three image results that have higher specificity values compared to those of geodesic active contour's. The result also indicates that both methods have succeeded in performing bone's image segmentation. Overall, geodesic active contours method is quite better than fast marching in segmenting bone images.

012045
The following article is Open access

, and

This study was to determine if administration of a low volume high-concentration iodinated contrast medium can preserve image quality in comparison with regular-concentration intravenous contrast medium in patient undergoing contrast-enhancement abdominal computed tomography (CT). Eighty-four patients were randomly divided into 3 groups of similar iodine delivery rate; A: 1.2 cc/kg of iomeprol-400, B: 1.0 cc/kg of iomeprol-400 and C: 1.5 cc/kg of ioversol-350. Contrast enhancement of the liver parenchyma, pancreas and aorta was quantitatively measured in Hounsfield units and qualitative assessed by a radiologist. T-test was used to evaluate contrast enhancement, and Chi-square test was used to evaluate qualitative image assessment, at significance level of 0.05 with 95% confidence intervals. There were no statistically significant differences in contrast enhancement of liver parenchyma and pancreas between group A and group C in both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Group C showed superior vascular enhancement to group A and B on quantitative analysis.

012046
The following article is Open access

, , and

This research was aimed to check the patterns of dose profile on adult and pediatric head scan. We compared measurement result on dose profile along the z- axis rotation at peripheries and center phantom with a variety of pitch, i.e. 0.75, 1, 1.5 for adult and pediatric head protocol, keeping the rest of the scan parameters constant. Measurements were performed on homogeneous, cylindrical PMMA phantom with diameters of 16 and 10 cm using XR-QA2 Gafchromic film and TLD as dosimeters. The measurement result indicated a decrease in the dose about 50% and 47% for adult and pediatric head scan with the increase of pitch. For 0.75 value of pitch adult head scan, dose range for each position were (2.4 - 5.0) cGy, (3.1 - 5.3) cGy, (2.2 - 4.5) cGy, (2.8 - 5.3) cGy, and (3.3 - 5.6) cGy for position of center, 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock peripheral phantom position respectively. Dose profile for adult and pediatric head scan protocols has pattern curve with the maximum dose in the middle and tendency of symmetry near the edges, with different the plateau length along z- axis direction in accordance to the measurement position in the phantom.

012047
The following article is Open access

, , , and

The aim of this study was to compare the attenuation values of a fabricated paediatric thyroid phantom material using different MDCT models. A paediatric thyroid phantom was designed to mimic the shape and size of a paediatric patient with an age of 9 years using high- density Polyethylene as the phantom material. The fabricated phantom was scanned using two different multidetector CT scanners (16- and 128-row detectors). The CT numbers were evaluated and the mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) of the phantom material were obtained at each applied energy from each scanner. The results were compared with the tables of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The CTs of 16- and 128-row detectors showed that the obtained attenuation values are very similar to the NIST's values. However, the CT of the 128-row detectors showed a slightly much closer match to the NIST's values. This refers to the type and quality of the electronic connections between the detectors. Furthermore, the type and number of detectors (16- and 128-detectors) could affect the details and quality of the output images. The results show that different multidetector CTs can be used to validate the phantom and determine the mass attenuation coefficients of its material.

012048
The following article is Open access

and

The aim of this research is to compare some image segmentation methods for lungs based on performance evaluation parameter (Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal Noise to Ratio (PSNR)). In this study, the methods compared were connected threshold, neighborhood connected, and the threshold level set segmentation on the image of the lungs. These three methods require one important parameter, i.e the threshold. The threshold interval was obtained from the histogram of the original image. The software used to segment the image here was InsightToolkit-4.7.0 (ITK). This research used 5 lung images to be analyzed. Then, the results were compared using the performance evaluation parameter determined by using MATLAB. The segmentation method is said to have a good quality if it has the smallest MSE value and the highest PSNR. The results show that four sample images match the criteria of connected threshold, while one sample refers to the threshold level set segmentation. Therefore, it can be concluded that connected threshold method is better than the other two methods for these cases.

012049
The following article is Open access

and

The increasing prevalence and complexity of fluoroscopically guided interventions (FGI) raises concern regarding radiation dose to patients subjected to the procedure. Despite current evidence showing the risk to patients from the deterministic effects of radiation (e.g. skin burns), radiation induced injuries remain commonplace. This review aims to increase the awareness surrounding radiation dose measurement for patients undergoing FGI. A review of the literature was conducted alongside previous researches from the authors' department. Studies pertaining to patient dose measurement, its formalism along with current advances and present challenges were reviewed. Current patient monitoring techniques (using available radiation dosimeters), as well as the inadequacy of accepting displayed dose as patient radiation dose is discussed. Furthermore, advances in real-time patient radiation dose estimation during FGI are considered. Patient dosimetry in FGI, particularly in real time, remains an ongoing challenge. The increasing occurrence and sophistication of these procedures calls for further advances in the field of patient radiation dose monitoring. Improved measuring techniques will aid clinicians in better predicting and managing radiation induced injury following FGI, thus improving patient care.

012050
The following article is Open access

, , , , , , and

It has been shown that breast density and obesity are related to breast cancer risk. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships of breast volume, breast dense volume and volumetric breast density (VBD) with body mass index (BMI) and body fat mass (BFM) for the three ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay and Indian) in Malaysia. We collected raw digital mammograms from 2450 women acquired on three digital mammography systems. The mammograms were analysed using Volpara software to obtain breast volume, breast dense volume and VBD. Body weight, BMI and BFM of the women were measured using a body composition analyser. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the independent predictors of increased overall breast volume, breast dense volume and VBD. Indians have highest breast volume and breast dense volume followed by Malays and Chinese. While Chinese are highest in VBD, followed by Malay and Indian. Multivariable analysis showed that increasing BMI and BFM were independent predictors of increased overall breast volume and dense volume. Moreover, BMI and BFM were independently and inversely related to VBD.

012051
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

This research analysed the urinary stone by measuring samples using Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflection spectroscopy and black box analysis. The main objective of this study is to find kinds of urinary stone and determine a total spectrum, which is a simple model of the chemical and mineral composition urinary stone through black box analysis using convolution method. The measurements result showed that kinds of urinary stone were pure calcium oxalate monohydrate, ion amino acid calcium oxalate monohydrate, a mixture of calcium oxalate monohydrate with calcium phosphate, a mixture of ion amino acid calcium oxalate monohydrate and calcium phosphate,pure uric acid, ion amino acid uric acid, and a mixture of calcium oxalate monohydrate with ion amino acid uric acid. The results of analysis of black box showed characteristics as the most accurate and precise to confirm the type of urinary stones based on theregion absorption peak on a graph, the results of the convolution, and the shape of the total spectrum on each urinary stones.

012052
The following article is Open access

, and

In the service unit of radiology, ultrasound modality is widely used because it has advantages over other modalities, such as relatively inexpensive, non-invasive, does not use ionizing radiation, and portable. Until now, the method for determining the depth visualization on quality control program is through the visual observation of ultrasound image on the monitor. The purpose of this study is to develop a computer-aided system to determine maximum depth of visualization. Data acquisition was done by using B-Mode Diagnostic Ultrasound machine and Multi-purpose Multi-tissue Ultrasound Phantom model 040GSE. Phantom was scanned at fixed frequency of 1,8 MHz, 2,2 MHz, 3,6 MHz and 5,0 MHz with a gain variation of 30 dB, 45 dB, and 60 dB. Global thresholding and Euclidean distance method were used to determine maximum visualization depth. From this study, it is proved that the visualization depth using computer aided provide deeper visualization than visual interpretation. The differences between expert verification and the result of image processing are <6%. Thus, computer aided system can be used for the purpose of quality control in determining maximum visualization depth of B-Mode diagnostic ultrasound image.

012053
The following article is Open access

, , , , , and

Knowledge of the composition of urinary stones is an essential part to determine suitable treatments for patients. The aim of this research is to characterize the urinary stones by using dual energy micro CT SkyScan 11173. This technique combines high-energy and low- energy scanning during a single acquisition. Six human urinary stones were scanned in vitro using 80 kV and 120 kV micro CT SkyScan 1173. Projected images were produced by micro CT SkyScan 1173 and then reconstructed using NRecon (in-house software from SkyScan) to obtain a complete 3D image. The urinary stone images were analysed using CT analyser to obtain information of internal structure and Hounsfield Unit (HU) values to determine the information regarding the composition of the urinary stones, respectively. HU values obtained from some regions of interest in the same slice are compared to a reference HU. The analysis shows information of the composition of the six scanned stones obtained. The six stones consist of stone number 1 (calcium+cystine), number 2 (calcium+struvite), number 3 (calcium+cystine+struvite), number 4 (calcium), number 5 (calcium+cystine+struvite), and number 6 (calcium+uric acid). This shows that dual energy micro CT SkyScan 1173 was able to characterize the composition of the urinary stone.

012054
The following article is Open access

, and

In 2011 the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) lowered the occupational eye dose limit from 150 to 20 mSv/yr [1]. While international jurisdictions are in a process of adopting these substantial changes, medical physicists at the clinical level have been advising medical colleagues on specific situations based on dose measurements. Commissioned and calibrated TLDs mounted in commercially available holders designed to simulate the measurement of Hp(3), were applied to staff involved in x-ray procedures for a one month period. During this period clinical procedure data was concurrently collected and subject to audit. The use or not of eye personal protective equipment (PPE) was noted for all staff. Audits were conducted in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory, the interventional angiography rooms and the procedural room where endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) procedures are performed. Significant levels of occupational dose were recorded in the cardiac and interventional procedures, with maximum reading exceeding the new limit for some interventional radiologists. No significant eye doses were measured for staff performing ERCP procedures. One outcome of the studies was increased use of eye PPE for operators of interventional equipment with increased availability also to nursing staff, when standing in close proximity to the patient during procedures.

012055
The following article is Open access

, , , and

This study aimed to model the psychophysiological interaction (PPI) between the bilateral STG and cerebellum (lobule VI and lobule VII) during an arithmetic addition task. Eighteen young adults participated in this study. They were instructed to solve single-digit addition tasks in quiet and noisy backgrounds during an fMRI scan. Results showed that in both hemispheres, the response in the cerebellum was found to be linearly influenced by the activity in STG (vice-versa) for both in-quiet and in-noise conditions. However, the influence of the cerebellum on STG seemed to be modulated by noise. A two-way PPI model between STG and cerebellum is suggested. The connectivity between the two regions during a simple addition task in a noisy condition is modulated by the participants' higher attention to perceive.

Nuclear Medicine

012056
The following article is Open access

and

Currently, many software packages for the internal radiation dosimetry have been developed. Many of them do not provide sufficient tools to perform all of the necessary steps from nuclear medicine image analysis for dose calculation. For this reason, we developed a CALRADDOSE software that can be performed internal dosimetry using MIRD method within a single environment. MATLAB software version 2015a was used as development tool. The calculation process of this software proceeds from collecting time-activity data from image data followed by residence time calculation and absorbed dose calculation using MIRD method. To evaluate the accuracy of this software, we calculate residence times and absorbed doses of 5 Ga- 67 studies and 5 I-131 MIBG studies and then compared the results with those obtained from OLINDA/EXM software. The results showed that the residence times and absorbed doses obtained from both software packages were not statistically significant differences. The CALRADDOSE software is a user-friendly, graphic user interface-based software for internal dosimetry. It provides fast and accurate results, which may be useful for a routine work.

012057
The following article is Open access

, , and

Suspicion on coronary heart disease can be confirmed by observing the function of left ventricle cardiac muscle with Myocardial Perfusion Imaging techniques. The function perfusion itself is indicated by the uptake of radiopharmaceutical tracer. The 31 patients were studied undergoing the MPI examination on Gatot Soebroto Hospital using 99mTc-sestamibi radiopharmaceutical with stress and rest conditions. Stress was stimulated by physical exercise or pharmacological agent. After two hours, the patient did rest condition on the same day. The difference of uptake percentage between stress and rest conditions will be used to determine the malfunction of perfusion due to ischemic or infarct. Degradation of cardiac function was determined based on the image-based assessment of five segments of left ventricle cardiac. As a result, 8 (25.8%) patients had normal myocardial perfusion and 11 (35.5%) patients suspected for having partial ischemia. Total ischemia occurred to 8 (25.8%) patients with reversible and irreversible ischemia and the remaining 4 (12.9%) patients for partial infarct with characteristic the percentage of perfusion ≤50%. It is concluded that MPI technique of image-based assessment on uptake percentage difference between stress and rest conditions can be employed to predict abnormal perfusion as complementary information to diagnose the cardiac function.

012058
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

The overall prognosis of patients with thyroid carcinoma is excellent whenever managed following best practice guidelines. Objective: To calculate sex and age group affected by thyroid cancer; to compare between single or multiple dose of radio ablation needed after thyroidectomy and to determine the percentage of patients become disease free during their follow up. Methods: This was a retrospective study done in NINMAS, Bangladesh on 687 patients from 1984 to 2004. In all cases total or near total thyroidectomy was done before commencing radioiodine therapy. Patients TG level, neck ultrasonography, thyroid scan, whole body I131 scans, neck examination were done every six monthly/yearly. Results: Among 687 patients, female were more sufferers (68.1%) and female to male ratio was 2:1. Age group 19-40 years was mostly affected (57.8%). Most common type seen was papillary carcinoma (81.8%). After ablation 100 patients did not follow-up. Total 237 patients discontinued within 4 years. Remaining 450 patients undergone regular follow-up for 5 years and more, 394 were disease free (87.6%). Total recurrence of metastasis was 23 and 12 patients expired at different times. Conclusions: Long-term regular follow-up is necessary after radioiodine ablation to become free of disease.

012059
The following article is Open access

, , , , , , and

90Y-radioembolization is a palliative treatment for liver cancer. 90Y decays via beta emission, making imaging difficult due to absence of gamma radiation. Since post-procedure imaging is crucial, several theranostic radionuclides have been explored as alternatives. However, exposures to gamma radiation throughout the treatment caused concern for the organs near the liver. Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation using MIRD Pamphlet 5 reference phantom was carried out. A spherical tumour with 4.3cm radius was modelled within the liver. 1.82GBq of 90Y sources were isotropically distributed within the tumour, with no extrahepatic shunting. The simulation was repeated with 153Sm, 166Ho and 177Lu. The estimated tumour doses for all radionuclides were 262.9Gy. Tumour dose equivalent to 1.82GBq 90Y can be achieved with 8.32, 5.83, and 4.44GBq for 153Sm, 166Ho and 177Lu, respectively. Normal liver doses by the other radionuclides were lower than 90Y, hence beneficial for normal tissue sparing. The organ doses from 153Sm and 177Lu were relatively higher due to higher gamma energy, but were still well below 1Gy. 166Ho, 177Lu and 153Sm offer useful gamma emission for post-procedure imaging. They show potential as 90Y substitutes, delivering comparable tumour doses, lower normal liver doses and other organs doses far below the tolerance limit.

012060
The following article is Open access

and

The standardization of radioactive sources (125I, 131I, 99mTc and 18F) to calibrate the nuclear medicine equipment had been carried out in PTKMR-BATAN. This is necessary because the radioactive sources used in the field of nuclear medicine has a very short half-life in other that to obtain a quality measurement results require special treatment. Besides that, the use of nuclear medicine techniques in Indonesia develop rapidly. All the radioactive sources were prepared by gravimetric methods. Standardization of 125I has been carried out by photon- photon coincidence methods, while the others have been carried out by gamma spectrometry methods. The standar sources are used to calibrate a Capintec CRC-7BT radionuclide calibrator. The results shows that calibration factor for Capintec CRC-7BT dose calibrator is 1,03; 1,02; 1,06; and 1,04 for 125I, 131I, 99mTc and 18F respectively, by about 5 to 6% of the expanded uncertainties.

012061
The following article is Open access

, and

The aim of this study is to estimate the whole body and finger radiation doses per study received by nuclear medicine staff involved in dispensing, administration of 18F-FDG and interacting with radioactive patients during PET/CT imaging procedures in a PET/CT facility. The whole-body doses received by radiopharmacists, technologists and nurses were measured by electronic dosimeter and the finger doses by ring dosimeter during a period of 4 months. In 70 PET/CT studies, the mean whole-body dose per study to radiopharmacist, technologist, and nurse were 1.07±0.09, 1.77±0.46, μSv, and not detectable respectively. The mean finger doses per study received by radiopharmacist, technologist, and nurse were 265.65±107.55, 4.84±1.08 and 19.22±2.59 μSv, respectively. The average time in contact with 18F-FDG was 5.88±0.03, 39.06±1.89 and 1.21±0.02 minutes per study for radiopharmacist, technologist and nurse respectively. Technologists received highest mean effective whole- body dose per study and radiopharmacist received the highest finger dose per study. When compared with the ICRP dose limit, each individual worker can work with many more 18F- FDG PET/CT studies for a whole year without exceeding the occupational dose limits. This study confirmed that low levels of radiation does are received by our medical personnel involved in 18F-FDG PET/CT procedures.

012062
The following article is Open access

, , , and

The prevalence of chronic renal diseases in Indonesia has an increasing annual trend, because it is frequently unrecognized and often co-exists with other disease. GFR and ERPF are parameters currently utilized to estimate renal function at routine renal scintigraphy 99m-Tc DTPA study. This study used 99m-Tc DTPA to measure GFR and ERPF. The purpose of this study was to find the correlation between ERPF and GFR, for ERPF analysis with Schlegel's method, and GFR analysis with Gate's method, as well as to find correction factor between both variables. Analysis of renal scintigraphy has been performed at Department of Nuclear Medicine Pertamina Center Hospital to thirty patient images acquired from 2014 to 2015 which were analyzed retrospectively data, using gamma camera dual head with counting method from renal scintigraphy 99m-Tc DTPA study. The calculation was executed by means of both display and manual calculation. Pearson's statistical analysis resulted on Positive Correlation for all data, with ERPF and GFR (display) showing Strongly Positive Correlation (r = 0.82; p- value < 0.05). Standard deviation was found to be 27.58 and 107.64 for GFR and ERPF (display), respectively. Our result indicated that the use of 99mTc-DTPA measure ERPF was not recommended.

Biomedical Engineering

012063
The following article is Open access

, , and

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has been widely used to perform any surgical procedures nowadays. Currently, MIS has been applied in some cases in Indonesia. Needle insertion is one of simple MIS procedure that can be used for some purposes. Before the needle insertion technique used in the real situation, it essential to train this type of medical student skills. The research has developed an open platform of needle insertion simulator with haptic feedback that providing the medical student a realistic feel encountered during the actual procedures. There are three main steps in build the training simulator, which are configure hardware system, develop a program to create soft tissue model and the integration of hardware and software. For evaluating its performance, haptic simulator was tested by 24 volunteers on a scenario of soft tissue model. Each volunteer must insert the needle on simulator until rearch the target point with visual feedback that visualized on the monitor. From the result it can concluded that the soft tissue model can bring the sensation of touch through the perceived force feedback on haptic actuator by looking at the different force in accordance with different stiffness in each layer.

012064
The following article is Open access

, , , , , and

Previous studies have demonstrated that bone morphological properties are a significant determinant of orthopaedic fastener fixation strength. The authors previously tested a new design of unthreaded expandable fastener (UEF) prototype against screws and demonstrated a significant increase in pull-out strength. However the effect of bone morphology on the pull-out strength of the UEF and expandable fasteners in general is unknown. This study assessed the correlation between failure force and maximum force against five microstructural parameters. The failure force of the UEF was correlated to the trabecular bone volume fraction, as with screws. Unlike screws, however, the maximum force of the UEF has an inverse relationship with cortical volume. No correlation was found between failure force and the Structural Model Index (SMI). Additionally the critical volume of interest (VOI) for the UEF is around the bottom of the fastener where the expansion occurs, whereas for the screw a full height VOI is critical. Furthermore, we observed that screw mechanical performance may be affected more by bone morphological parameters that are associated with poorer quality bone. Therefore the UEF may perform better than screws in low quality osteoporotic bone.

012065
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) is one of X-ray imaging modalities that are applied in dentistry. Its modality can visualize the oral region in 3D and in a high resolution. CBCT jaw image has potential information for the assessment of bone quality that often used for pre-operative implant planning. We propose comparison method based on normalized histogram (NH) on the region of inter-dental septum and premolar teeth. Furthermore, the NH characteristic from normal and abnormal bone condition are compared and analyzed. Four test parameters are proposed, i.e. the difference between teeth and bone average intensity (s), the ratio between bone and teeth average intensity (n) of NH, the difference between teeth and bone peak value (Δp) of NH, and the ratio between teeth and bone of NH range (r). The results showed that n, s, and Δp have potential to be the classification parameters of dental calcium density.

012066
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Osteoporosis is a degenerative disease characterized by low Bone Mineral Density (BMD). Currently, a BMD level is determined by Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) at the lumbar vertebrae and femur. Previous studies reported that dental panoramic radiography image has potential information for early osteoporosis detection. This work reported alternative scheme, that consists of the determination of the Region of Interest (ROI) the condyle mandibular in the image as biomarker and feature extraction from ROI and classification of bone conditions. The minimum value of intensity in the cavity area is used to compensate an offset on the ROI. For feature extraction, the fraction of intensity values in the ROI that represent high bone density and the ROI total area is perfomed. The classification will be evaluated from the ability of each feature and its combinations for the BMD detection in 2 classes (normal and abnormal), with the artificial neural network method. The evaluation system used 105 panoramic image data from menopause women which consist of 36 training data and 69 test data that were divided into 2 classes. The 2 classes of classification obtained 88.0% accuracy rate and 88.0% sensitivity rate.

012067
The following article is Open access

, , and

Radiofrequency ablation has been developed as a minimally-invasive method for cancer therapy. Nevertheless, the unfeasibility of direct observation during ablation process sometimes becomes a challenge for practitioners, particularly those constrained by the absence of a proper monitoring system. Thus, aiming to develop a prudent cancer therapy planning, this research develops a 3D model that enable practitioners to predict the tissue damage resulted by a simulated ablation before a real ablation is executed. The model, developed using finite element method, is made to mimic real human liver tissue by simulating its physical properties as temperature-dependent functions. Three probe placement cases, representing three different approaches, are analysed to study the effect of probe placement configuration on tissue damage formed during a time-dependent ablation process. The three placement cases are surface-perpendicular placement, misaligned placement, and relatively accurate placement. It can be concluded that the accuracy of a probe placement configuration can be assessed by quantifying two major parameters: average tissue damage in the target domain and accumulated damage resulted in complementary tissue domain. Optimum ablation duration can also be determined by considering those parameters.

012068
The following article is Open access

, , , , and

This research aims to study brain's electrical signals recorded using EEG as a basis for the diagnosis of patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The subjects consisted of patients with AD, and normal subjects are used as the control. Brain signals are recorded for 3 minutes in a relaxed condition and with eyes closed. The data is processed using power spectral analysis, brain mapping and chaos test to observe the level of complexity of EEG's data. The results show a shift in the power spectral in the low frequency band (delta and theta) in AD patients. The increase of delta and theta occurs in lobus frontal area and lobus parietal respectively. However, there is a decrease of alpha activity in AD patients where in the case of normal subjects with relaxed condition, brain alpha wave dominates the posterior area. This is confirmed by the results of brain mapping. While the results of chaos analysis show that the average value of MMLE is lower in AD patients than in normal subjects. The level of chaos associated with neural complexity in AD patients with lower neural complexity is due to neuronal damage caused by the beta amyloid plaques and tau protein in neurons.

012069
The following article is Open access

, , and

A simulation to determine capacitance of brain's electrical activity based on two electrodes ECVT was conducted in this study. This study began with construction of 2D coronal head geometry with five different layers and ECVT sensor design, and then both of these designs were merged. After that, boundary conditions were applied on two electrodes in the ECVT sensor. The first electrode was defined as a Dirichlet boundary condition with 20 V in potential and another electrode was defined as a Dirichlet boundary condition with 0 V in potential. Simulated Hodgkin-Huxley -based action potentials were applied as electrical activity of the brain and sequentially were put on 3 different cross-sectional positions. As the governing equation, the Poisson equation was implemented in the geometry. Poisson equation was solved by finite element method. The simulation showed that the simulated capacitance values were affected by action potentials and cross-sectional action potential positions.

012070
The following article is Open access

, and

The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the differences of power spectral distribution in various frequency bands between healthy subjects and schizophrenic patients. Subjects in this study were 8 people consisting of 4 schizophrenic patients and 4 healthy subjects. Subjects were recorded from 12 electrodes with Electroencephalography (EEG). EEG signals were recorded during a resting eye-closed state for 4-6 minutes. Data were extracted and analyzed by centering and filtering, then performed using Welch Periodogram technique for the spectral estimation with a Hamming window. The results of this study showed that delta power spectral in schizophrenic patients increased ten times from healthy subjects; theta power spectral in schizophrenic patients increased three times from healthy subjects; alpha power spectral in schizophrenic patients decreased with an increase of one third of healthy subjects. These results were confirmed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showing there were significant differences between schizophrenic and healthy subjects on delta, theta and alpha brain wave. Based on the results of Brain Mapping analysis showed that there was significant increasing in the activity of delta waves and theta waves in frontal lobe of schizophrenics, whereas the alpha waves indicated a decrease in the occipital lobe in all schizophrenic patients.

Biophysics

012071
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Respirable particulate exposure strongly affects human health, especially for children who lived around industrial area. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of respirable particulate exposure to lung capacity of children. Study location in this study was Parung Panjang District, area of lead smelter industry and also in Astana Anyar District, area of e-waste processing industry. Thirty children were involved in Astana Anyar District and also thirty children in Parung Panjang District. The control groups were also studied in both areas. Predicted average daily intake (ADD) of respirable particulate was estimated and lung or respiration condition of children was measured by using spirometer. The lung condition of respondents was estimated by FEV1.0 and FVC values. As the result, the predicted ADD of children in lead smelter area is 3 times higher than the predicted ADD of children in e-waste processing area. It was correlated positively with the higher PM2.5 concentration in Parung Panjang District than the PM2.5 concentration in Astana Anyar District. Metals concentration in Parung Panjang was also measured with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) in this study and it was clearly state that metals concentration in location study were higher than metals concentration in control area.

012072
The following article is Open access

and

Conventional electroporation is a formation of pores in the membrane cell due to the external electric field applied to the cell. The purpose of creating pores in the cell using conventional electroporation are to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy (electrochemotherapy) and to kill cancer tissue using irreversible electroporation. Modeling of electroporation phenomenon on a model cell had been done by using software COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3b with the applied external electric field with intensity at 1.1 kV/cm to find transmembrane voltage and pore density. It can be concluded from the results of potential distribution and transmembrane voltage, it show that pores formation only occurs in the membrane cells and it could not penetrate into inside the model cell so there is not pores formation in its organells.

012073
The following article is Open access

and

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been explored in almost every single cancer treatment modality, including drug delivery, lymphatic targeted chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and gene therapy. They are considered as one of the most promising nanomaterial with the capability of both detecting the cancerous cells and delivering drugs or small therapeutic molecules to the cells. CNTs have unique physical and chemical properties such as high aspect ratio, ultralight weight, high mechanical strength, high electrical conductivity, and high thermal conductivity. Coconut Shell was researched as active carbon source on 500 - 600°C. These activated carbon was synthesized becomes carbon nanotube and have been proposed as a promising tool for detecting the expression of indicative biological molecules at early stage of cancer. Clinically, biomarkers cancer can be detected by CNT Biosensor. We are using pyrolysis methods combined with CVD process or Wet Chemical Process on 600°C. Our team has successfully obtained high purity, and aligned MWCNT (Multi Wall Nanotube) bundles on synthesis CNT based on coconut shells raw materials. CNTs can be used to cross the mammalian cell membrane by endocytosis or other mechanisms. SEM characterization of these materials have 179 nm bundles on phase 83° and their materials compound known by using FTIR characterization.

012074
The following article is Open access

, and

The objective of this research was to determining of protein from connective tissue (protein) in the inner layer of organic and broiler chicken gizzard. The presence of collagens was observed by submersion with 0.1 M NaOH base pH 8 and without submersion. The physiochemical properties and characteristic of collagen from inner layer chicken gizzard such as FTIR spectra, element content, morphology and SDS-PAGE pattern were evaluated. FTIR spectrum in the sample without submersion shown collagen components had wave number that are in the range of wave number (3289-1078 cm-1) bovine collagen. While, FTIR spectrum in the sample with submersion exhibited removal of molecular functional groups and decreasing intensity of infrared absorption. The element content and morphology of two samples indicated that the elements found in the samples were recognized as the elements generally found in proteins and had little structure at SEM micrograph. SDS-PAGE pattern demonstrated that collagen from inner layer chicken gizzard had >120 kDa on molecular unit weight indicating that type 1 collagen is a major component of inner layer chicken gizzard collagen. This study demonstrated the existence of collagen from exploited bio-waste to be an alternative possible source for collagen production.

012075
The following article is Open access

and

Bimetallic Au-Ag core-shell, a type of composite spherical nanoparticle consisting of a spherical Au core covered by Ag shell, have been used as active material for biomolecular analyte detection based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy. SPR technology evolved into a key technology for characterization of biomolecular interaction. In this paper, we want to show the influence of nanoparticle bimettalic Au-Ag coreshell for optic respon of LSPR biosensor through attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectrum. The method consist of several steps begin from make a model LSPR system with Kretschmann configuration, dielectric function determination of composite bimetallic coreshell nanoparticle using effective medium theory approximation and the last is reflectivity calculation for size variation of core and shell bimetallic nanoparticle. Our result show that, by varying the radius of core and shell thickness, the peak of the reflectivity (ATR spectrum) shifted to the different angle of incident light and the addition of coreshell in SPR biosensor leads to enhancement the sensitivity.

012076
The following article is Open access

, , and

Interactions between DNA binding protein and specific base pairs of nucleic acid is critical for biological process. We propose a new model of DNA-protein interactions to depict the dynamics of specific DNA-protein interactions. Hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) are, among the other intermolecular interactions in DNA, the most distinctive in term of specificity of molecular bonds. As H-bonds account for specificity, we only consider the dynamics affected by H-bonds between DNA base pairs and H-bonds connecting protein side chains and DNA. The H-bonds are modelled by Morse potentials and coupling terms in the Hamiltonian of coupled oscillators resembling a coupling between planar DNA chain and a protein molecule. In this paper we give a perturbative approach as an attempt for a soliton solution. The solution is in the form of nonlinear travelling wave having the amplitudes satisfying coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations and is interpreted as the mediator for nonlocal transmittance of biological information in DNA.

012077
The following article is Open access

, , and

Understanding a structure, function and molecular mechanisms of a cell are not easy. Even though, it is difficult, but it still has a solution to be investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate the compartment model as a structure of a cell and diffusion process inside a cell and nucleus by using Monte Carlo simulation. MCell was used to analyze the compartment model for mechanisms inside a cell and nucleus. Compartment model consist two icosphere with different size, with cell diameter for 0.8 μm and nucleus diameter varies for about 0.4, 0.5, and 6 μm, respectively. Another parameter was their width and a model of receptor on the surface of the nucleus. During investigation, an amount of receptor was 120, 150, and 180 grid element. The model was collected and separated. The diffusion process flew from cell to the nucleus and returned to the cell with 2000 molecules on surface. MCell successfully simulated compartment model for a cell and the nucleus. Diffusion process depended on the diameter of the nucleus. The greater the nucleus, more effective the speed of diffusion process would be because the concentration inside the cell was increase and concentration in the nucleus was decrease.

012078
The following article is Open access

and

Organochlorines are the main pollutants in the class of persistent organic pollutants which are types of pollutants that are being questioned worldwide due to chronic persistence, toxicity and bioaccumulation. Human around the Citarum River are still using groundwater as a drinking source. It is very risky for people health that consume groundwater because in 2009 the application of organochlorine still found in the Upper Citarum watershed rice field and had potential to contaminate groundwater. Groundwater was analyzed with nine species belonging to the organochlorine pollutants Organic Peristent types. 7 types of organochlorinesAldrin was detected with an average concentration of 0.09 ppb, dieldrin with an average concentration of 24 ppb, heptaklor with an average concentration of 0.51 ppb, with concentrations of endosulfan on average 0.73 ppb, DDT with average concentration of 0.13 ppb, Lindan with an average concentration of 1.2 ppb, endrin with an average concentration of 0.03 ppb. Types with the highest concentration of organochlorine a lindan and endosulfan. Residues of aldrin, dieldrin and heptaklor in groundwater already exceeds the quality standards for drinking water Permenkes 492/2010. Based on the iridology analysis obtained several systems are expected to nervous, immune and reproductive system disorders and toxin deposits under the skin.

012079
The following article is Open access

, , , and

Budding yeast can exhibit colony formation in solid substrate. The colony of pathogenic budding yeast can colonize various surfaces of the human body and medical devices. Furthermore, it can form biofilm that resists drug effective therapy. The formation of the colony is affected by the interaction between cells and with its growth media. The cell budding pattern holds an important role in colony expansion. To study this colony growth, the molecular dynamic method was chosen to simulate the interaction between budding yeast cells. Every cell was modelled by circular granular cells, which can grow and produce buds. Cohesion force, contact force, and Stokes force govern this model to mimic the interaction between cells and with the growth substrate. Characterization was determined by the maximum (Lmax) and minimum (Lmin) distances between two cells within the colony and whether two lines that connect the two cells in the maximum and minimum distances intersect each other. Therefore, it can be recognized the colony shape in circular, oval, and irregular shapes. Simulation resulted that colony formation are mostly in oval shape with little branch. It also shows that greater cohesion strength obtains more compact colony formation.