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Quantitative Evaluation of the Effects of Orthopedic Metal Artifact Reduction (OMAR) Software On CT Images for Radiotherapy Simulation
S Jani1*, (1) Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego, CA
Presentations
SU-E-I-63 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit HallPurpose: CT simulation for patients with metal implants can often be challenging due to artifacts that obscure tumor/target delineation and normal organ definition. Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of Orthopedic Metal Artifact Reduction (OMAR), a commercially available software, in reducing metal-induced artifacts and its effect on computed dose during treatment planning.
Methods: CT images of water surrounding metallic cylindrical rods made of aluminum, copper and iron were studied in terms of Hounsfield Units (HU) spread. Metal-induced artifacts were characterized in terms of HU/Volume Histogram (HVH) using the Pinnacle treatment planning system. Effects of OMAR on enhancing our ability to delineate organs on CT and subsequent dose computation were examined in nine (9) patients with hip implants and two (2) patients with breast tissue expanders.
Results: Our study characterized water at 1000 HU with a standard deviation (SD) of about 20 HU. The HVHs allowed us to evaluate how the presence of metal changed the HU spread. For example, introducing a 2.54 cm diameter copper rod in water increased the SD in HU of the surrounding water from 20 to 209, representing an increase in artifacts. Subsequent use of OMAR brought the SD down to 78. Aluminum produced least artifacts whereas Iron showed largest amount of artifacts. In general, an increase in kVp and mA during CT scanning showed better effectiveness of OMAR in reducing artifacts. Our dose analysis showed that some isodose contours shifted by several mm with OMAR but infrequently and were non-significant in planning process. Computed volumes of various dose levels showed <2% change.
Conclusions: In our experience, OMAR software greatly reduced the metal-induced CT artifacts for the majority of patients with implants, thereby improving our ability to delineate tumor and surrounding organs. OMAR had a clinically negligible effect on computed dose within tissues.
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: Partially funded by unrestricted educational grant from Philips
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