Program Information
Development and Clinical Implementation of a Fully-Automated Quality Control System for a Wide-Bore 3T MRI Simulator Dedicated for MRI-Based Radiotherapy Planning
A Xing*, L Gary , S Arumugam , R Rai , T Yong , L Holloway , G Gooze , Liverpool & Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre, Sydney, New south Wales
Presentations
SU-K-708-1 (Sunday, July 30, 2017) 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: 708
Purpose: Quality assurance (QA) of an MRI simulator dedicated for radiation oncology poses a new challenge to the clinical physicists. The purpose of this work is to develop a software system to automatically monitor the simulator’s performance on a daily basis.
Methods: A software system, named as autoMRISimQA, was developed to monitor the daily performance of a wide-bore 3T scanner using AQUARIUS phantom (MRI-0005,S/N 0010260016, LAP of American, Laser application, USA). The system was designed and constructed into six modules: preprocessing module, QA parameter module, fail-pass module, database module, PDF report module and QATrack module. The phantom images acquired daily were preprocessed and then the QA parameters module calculates signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), uniformity, ghosting, contrast and geometric distances and laser positions. These parameters were compared with their reference values determined from the scanner’s performance over a period of three months. These measured parameters were written into a database and a PDF report. The system was also integrated with QATrack+, an open-source web-based QA data manage system. The workflow was performed without interference from medical physicists or radiation therapists once the new images were acquired and transferred.
Results: autoMRISimQA has been running in our clinics for one year and reduced QA time using one scan to assess image quality and lasers. Continuous monitoring of MRI simulator’s performance ensured the short, medium and, especially, the long-term follow up of technical characteristics and their possible drift with time. The system has several unique features:(1) fully automated monitoring of the system using image indices which are directly related to use of MRI in radiotherapy; (2) integrated with a QA management system; (3) automatically sending e-mail to physicists if any of QA parameters is out of tolerance.
Conclusion: A software system was developed to automate daily QA of an MRI simulator and improved workflow efficiency.
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