X-Ray Acoustic-Based Dosimetry Using a Focused Ultrasound Transducer and a Medical Linear Accelerator

High-energy ionizing radiation therapy is a highly effective method for destroying cancer cells. Monitoring the dose distribution during radiation therapy is extremely important to deliver an optimal X-ray dose to diseased areas and minimize radiation exposure to adjacent healthy tissues. Here, we present an X-ray acoustic (XA) dosimetry system that successfully combines a spherically focused ultrasound (US) transducer with a medical linear accelerator. The system can be potentially utilized in clinical radiation therapy as an intratherapy dosimetry tool. The measured XA signal showed good correlation with the water-absorbed dose measured with conventional dosimetry. We acquired the absorbed X-ray dose distribution in a lead sample by mechanically scanning the focused US transducer. The lateral spatial resolution of the XA signal was 2.1 ± 0.5 mm, and signal-to-noise ratio of the signal was maintained with 100-mm penetration depth, whereas that of a laser-driven photoacoustic signal was exponentially decreased.

[1]  A. Dell'Acqua,et al.  Geant4 - A simulation toolkit , 2003 .

[2]  R. Kruger,et al.  Photoacoustic ultrasound (PAUS)--reconstruction tomography. , 1995, Medical physics.

[3]  Mukund Seshadri,et al.  Non-invasive, Multimodal Functional Imaging of the Intestine with Frozen Micellar Naphthalocyanines , 2014, Nature nanotechnology.

[4]  Chulhong Kim,et al.  Multiplane spectroscopic whole-body photoacoustic imaging of small animals in vivo , 2014, Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing.

[5]  M. Brechbiel,et al.  Antibody-targeted radiation cancer therapy , 2004, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

[6]  Samuel Achilefu,et al.  Multimodal sentinel lymph node mapping with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) and photoacoustic tomography. , 2012, Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine.

[7]  Giuliana Fiorillo,et al.  Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research , 2009 .

[8]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  Second generation optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy , 2011, BiOS.

[9]  M Mahesh,et al.  Fluoroscopy: patient radiation exposure issues. , 2001, Radiographics : a review publication of the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

[10]  Desmond Curran,et al.  Quality of life after radiation therapy of cerebral low-grade gliomas of the adult: results of a randomised Phase III trial on dose response (EORTC trial 22844) , 1998 .

[11]  Chulhong Kim,et al.  Organic Nanostructures for Photoacoustic Imaging , 2016 .

[12]  Liang Song,et al.  Dual-color photoacoustic lymph node imaging using nanoformulated naphthalocyanines. , 2015, Biomaterials.

[13]  H Schmidt-Kloiber,et al.  Optoacoustic tomography: time-gated measurement of pressure distributions and image reconstruction. , 2001, Applied optics.

[14]  Vasilis Ntziachristos,et al.  Multispectral optoacoustic tomography at 64, 128, and 256 channels , 2014, Journal of biomedical optics.

[15]  Todd N. Erpelding,et al.  Deeply penetrating in vivo photoacoustic imaging using a clinical ultrasound array system , 2010, Biomedical optics express.

[16]  Ben Mijnheer,et al.  In vivo dosimetry in external beam radiotherapy. , 2013, Medical physics.

[17]  A. L. Angelini,et al.  Characterization of a 2D ion chamber array for the verification of radiotherapy treatments , 2005, Physics in medicine and biology.

[18]  L V Wang,et al.  Anisotropy in the absorption and scattering spectra of chicken breast tissue. , 1998, Applied optics.

[19]  Xosé Luís Deán-Ben,et al.  Adding fifth dimension to optoacoustic imaging: volumetric time-resolved spectrally enriched tomography , 2014, Light: Science & Applications.

[20]  Lei Xing,et al.  X-ray acoustic computed tomography with pulsed x-ray beam from a medical linear accelerator. , 2012, Medical physics.

[21]  Liang Song,et al.  Handheld array-based photoacoustic probe for guiding needle biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes. , 2010, Journal of biomedical optics.

[22]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  In vivo dark-field reflection-mode photoacoustic microscopy. , 2005, Optics letters.

[23]  Lei Xing,et al.  High Resolution X-ray-Induced Acoustic Tomography , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[24]  W. Sachse,et al.  X-Ray-Generated Ultrasonic Signals: Characteristics and Imaging Applications , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[25]  Chulhong Kim,et al.  Programmable Real-time Clinical Photoacoustic and Ultrasound Imaging System , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[26]  Chulhong Kim,et al.  Biodegradable Photonic Melanoidin for Theranostic Applications. , 2016, ACS nano.

[27]  P. Lambin,et al.  A literature review of electronic portal imaging for radiotherapy dosimetry. , 2008, Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

[28]  Daniel W. Miller,et al.  Comparison of conventional-dose vs high-dose conformal radiation therapy in clinically localized adenocarcinoma of the prostate: a randomized controlled trial. , 2005, JAMA.

[29]  Davide Fontanarosa,et al.  Review of ultrasound image guidance in external beam radiotherapy: I. Treatment planning and inter-fraction motion management , 2015, Physics in medicine and biology.

[30]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  Photoacoustic Tomography: In Vivo Imaging from Organelles to Organs , 2012, Science.

[31]  Mahadevappa Mahesh,et al.  Fluoroscopy: patient radiation exposure issues. , 2001, Radiographics : a review publication of the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

[32]  Jin Young Kim,et al.  Fast optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy using a 2-axis water-proofing MEMS scanner , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[33]  Pierre Léger,et al.  Experimental evaluation of x‐ray acoustic computed tomography for radiotherapy dosimetry applications , 2017, Medical physics.

[34]  Issam El Naqa,et al.  On the Detectability of Acoustic Waves Induced Following Irradiation by a Radiotherapy Linear Accelerator , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control.

[35]  Benjamin E Nelms,et al.  An analysis of an implantable dosimeter system for external beam therapy. , 2005, International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics.

[36]  T L Chenevert,et al.  Combined effect of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand and ionizing radiation in breast cancer therapy. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[37]  Lihong V. Wang,et al.  In vivo photoacoustic tomography of chemicals: high-resolution functional and molecular optical imaging at new depths. , 2010, Chemical reviews.

[38]  Lihong V Wang,et al.  In vivo deep brain imaging of rats using oral-cavity illuminated photoacoustic computed tomography , 2015, Journal of biomedical optics.

[39]  García,et al.  Theory for the photoacoustic response to x-ray absorption. , 1988, Physical review letters.