AAPM Medical physics practice guideline 15.A: Peer review in clinical physics.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education, and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States. The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States.

Operational consistency of medical linear accelerators manufactured and commissioned in series.

The purpose of this study was to determine if medical linear accelerators (linac) produced by the same manufacturer exhibit operational consistency within their subsystems and components. Two linacs that were commissioned together and installed at the same facility were monitored. Each machine delivered a daily robust quality assurance (QA) irradiation.

A model for preemptive maintenance of medical linear accelerators-predictive maintenance.

Background: Unscheduled accelerator downtime can negatively impact the quality of life of patients during their struggle against cancer. Currently digital data accumulated in the accelerator system is not being exploited in a systematic manner to assist in more efficient deployment of service engineering resources. The purpose of this study is to develop an effective process for detecting unexpected deviations in accelerator system operating parameters and/or performance that predicts component failure or system dysfunction and allows maintenance to be performed prior to the actuation of interlocks.

Initial investigation using statistical process control for quality control of accelerator beam steering.

Background: This study seeks to increase clinical operational efficiency and accelerator beam consistency by retrospectively investigating the application of statistical process control (SPC) to linear accelerator beam steering parameters to determine the utility of such a methodology in detecting changes prior to equipment failure (interlocks actuated).

Methods: Steering coil currents (SCC) for the transverse and radial planes are set such that a reproducibly useful photon or electron beam is available. SCC are sampled and stored in the control console computer each day during the morning warm-up.

Improved volumetric imaging in tomosynthesis using combined multiaxial sweeps.

This study explores the volumetric reconstruction fidelity attainable using tomosynthesis with a kV imaging system which has a unique ability to rotate isocentrically and with multiple degrees of mechanical freedom. More specifically, we seek to investigate volumetric reconstructions by combining multiple limited-angle rotational image acquisition sweeps. By comparing these reconstructed images with those of a CBCT reconstruction, we can gauge the volumetric fidelity of the reconstructions.

Incorporation of a Laguerre-Gauss channelized Hotelling observer for false-positive reduction in a mammographic mass CAD system.

Previously, we developed a simple Laguerre-Gauss (LG) channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) for incorporation into our mass computer-aided detection (CAD) system. This LG-CHO was trained using initial detection suspicious region data and was empirically optimized for free parameters. For the study presented in this paper, we wish to create a more optimal mass detection observer based on a novel combination of LG channels.

Characterization of difference of Gaussian filters in the detection of mammographic regions.

In this article, we present a characterization of the effect of difference of Gaussians (DoG) filters in the detection of mammographic regions. DoG filters have been used previously in mammographic mass computer-aided detection (CAD) systems. As DoG filters are constructed from the subtraction of two bivariate Gaussian distributions, they require the specification of three parameters: the size of the filter template and the standard deviations of the constituent Gaussians.

Predicting radiotherapy-induced cardiac perfusion defects.

The purpose of this work is to compare the efficacy of mathematical models in predicting the occurrence of radiotherapy-induced left ventricular perfusion defects assessed using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The basis of this study is data from 73 left-sided breast/ chestwall patients treated with tangential photon fields. The mathematical models compared were three commonly used parametric models [Lyman normal tissue complication probability (LNTCP), relative serialty (RS), generalized equivalent uniform dose (gEUD)] and a nonparametric model (Linear discriminant analysis--LDA).

Penalized likelihood fluence optimization with evolutionary components for intensity modulated radiation therapy treatment planning.

A novel iterative penalized likelihood algorithm with evolutionary components for the optimization of beamlet fluences for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is presented. This algorithm is designed to be flexible in terms of the objective function and automatically escalates dose, as long as the objective function increases and all constraints are met. For this study, the objective function employed was the product of target equivalent uniform dose (EUD) and fraction of target tissue within set homogeneity constraints.

Incorporation of an iterative, linear segmentation routine into a mammographic mass CAD system.

In previous research, we have developed a computer-aided detection (CAD) system designed to detect masses in mammograms. The previous version of our system employed a simple but imprecise method to localize the masses. In this research, we present a more robust segmentation routine for use with mammographic masses.

Computer aided detection of masses in mammography using subregion Hotelling observers.

We propose to investigate the use of the subregion Hotelling observer for the basis of a computer aided detection scheme for masses in mammography. A database of 1320 regions of interest (ROIs) was selected from the DDSM database collected by the University of South Florida using the Lumisys scanner cases. The breakdown of the cases was as follows: 656 normal ROIs, 307 benign ROIs, and 357 cancer ROIs.

Chest radiography: optimization of X-ray spectrum for cesium iodide-amorphous silicon flat-panel detector.

Purpose: To ascertain the optimum x-ray spectrum for chest radiography with a cesium iodide-amorphous silicon flat-panel detector.

Materials And Methods: End points for optimization included the ratio of tissue contrast to bone contrast and a figure of merit (FOM) equal to the square of the signal-to-noise ratio of tissue divided by incident exposure to the patient. Studies were conducted with both computer spectrum modeling and experimental measurement in narrow-beam and full-field exposure conditions for four tissue thicknesses (8-32 cm).