Program Information
A Compact Modular Computational Platform for Automated On-Board Imager Quality Assurance
S Dolly1,2*, B Cai1 , H Chen1 , M Anastasio1 , J Tan,3 , B Sun1 , S Yaddanapudi1 , C Noel1 , S Goddu1 , S Mutic1 , H Li1 , (1) Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA (2) University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA (3) UTSouthwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Tx, USA
Presentations
SU-C-304-4 (Sunday, July 12, 2015) 1:00 PM - 1:55 PM Room: 304
Purpose:
Traditionally, the assessment of X-ray tube output and detector positioning accuracy of on-board imagers (OBI) has been performed manually and subjectively with rulers and dosimeters, and typically takes hours to complete. In this study, we have designed a compact modular computational platform to automatically analyze OBI images acquired with in-house designed phantoms as an efficient and robust surrogate.
Methods:
The platform was developed as an integrated and automated image analysis-based platform using MATLAB for easy modification and maintenance. Given a set of images acquired with the in-house designed phantoms, the X-ray output accuracy was examined via cross-validation of the uniqueness and integration minimization of important image quality assessment metrics, while machine geometric and positioning accuracy were validated by utilizing pattern-recognition based image analysis techniques.
Results:
The platform input was a set of images of an in-house designed phantom. The total processing time is about 1-2 minutes. Based on the data acquired from three Varian Truebeam machines over the course of 3 months, the designed test validation strategy achieved higher accuracy than traditional methods. The kVp output accuracy can be verified within +/-2 kVp, the exposure accuracy within 2%, and exposure linearity with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.1. Sub-millimeter position accuracy was achieved for the lateral and longitudinal positioning tests, while vertical positioning accuracy within +/-2 mm was achieved.
Conclusion:
This new platform delivers to the radiotherapy field an automated, efficient, and stable image analysis-based procedure, for the first time, acting as a surrogate for traditional tests for LINAC OBI systems. It has great potential to facilitate OBI quality assurance (QA) with the assistance of advanced image processing techniques. In addition, it provides flexible integration of additional tests for expediting other OBI quality assurance tests, such as 2D/3D image quality, making completely automated QA possible.
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: Research Funding from Varian Medical Systems Inc. . Dr. Sasa Mutic receives compensation for providing patient safety training services from Varian Medical Systems, the sponsor of this study.
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