Med Phys
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For Monte Carlo linac simulations and patient dose calculations, it is important to accurately determine the phase space parameters of the initial electron beam incident on the target. These parameters, such as mean energy and radial intensity distribution, have traditionally been determined by matching the calculated dose distributions with the measured dose distributions through a trial and error process. This process is very time consuming and requires a lot of Monte Carlo simulation experience and computational resources. ⋯ Due to the existence of statistical uncertainty in simulated dose distributions, it is practically impossible to determine the best energy/radius combination; we have to accept a group of energy/radius combinations. We have also investigated the minimum required data set for accurate determination of the initial beam parameters. We found that the percent depth dose curves along or only a lateral profile at certain depth for a large field size is not sufficient and the minimum data set should include several lateral profiles at various depths as well as the central axis percent depth dose curve for a large field size.
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This paper proposes a novel respiratory detection method based on diaphragm motion measurements using a 2D ultrasound unit. The proposed method extracts a respiratory signal from an automated analysis of the internal diaphragm motion during breathing. The respiratory signal may be used for gating. ⋯ The resulting MI and CC values were discovered to produce a signal corresponding to the respiratory cycle in both phase and magnitude. We also studied the diaphragm motion of two volunteers during repeated deep inspiration breath holds (DIBH) and found a slight relaxation motion of the diaphragm during the DIBH, suggesting that the residual motion may be important for treatments delivered at this breathing phase. Applying the proposed respiratory detection method to these ultrasound studies, we found that the MI and CC values demonstrate the relaxation behavior, indicatingthat our method may be used to determine the radiation triggering time for a DIBH technique.