Cherenkov imaging combined with scintillation dosimetry provides real-time positional and dose monitoring for radiotherapy patients with cardiac implanted electronic devices.

Background And Purpose: Cardiac implanted electronic devices (CIED) require dose monitoring during each fraction of radiotherapy, which can be time consuming and may have delayed read-out times. This study explores the potential of Cherenkov imaging combined with scintillation dosimetry as an alternative verification system.

Methods And Materials: Time-gated, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (iCMOS) cameras were used to collect video images of anthropomorphic phantoms and patients undergoing radiation treatment near chest wall cardiac devices.

Technical note: Visual, rapid, scintillation point dosimetry for in vivo MV photon beam radiotherapy treatments.

Background: While careful planning and pre-treatment checks are performed to ensure patient safety during external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), inevitable daily variations mean that in vivo dosimetry (IVD) is the only way to attain the true delivered dose. Several countries outside the US require daily IVD for quality assurance. However, elsewhere, the manual labor and time considerations of traditional in vivo dosimeters may be preventing frequent use of IVD in the clinic.

Unraveling the Intertwined Effect of pH on Motility and the Microrheology of the Mucin-Based Medium It Swims in.

The gastric pathogen, bacteria have to swim across a pH gradient from 2 to 7 in the mucus layer to colonize the gastric epithelium. Previous studies from our group have shown that porcine gastric mucin (PGM) gels at an acidic pH < 4, and bacteria are unable to swim in the gel, although their flagella rotate. Changing pH impacts both the rheological properties of gastric mucin and also influences the proton (H+)-pumped flagellar motors of as well as their anti-pH sensing receptors.

Color-resolved Cherenkov imaging allows for differential signal detection in blood and melanin content.

Significance: High-energy x-ray delivery from a linear accelerator results in the production of spectrally continuous broadband Cherenkov light inside tissue. In the absence of attenuation, there is a linear relationship between Cherenkov emission and deposited dose; however, scattering and absorption result in the distortion of this linear relationship. As Cherenkov emission exits the absorption by tissue dominates the observed Cherenkov emission spectrum.

Clinical implementation of the first Cherenkov imaging system in a community-based hospital.

Purpose: To document experiences with one year of clinical implementation of the first Cherenkov imaging system and share the methods that we developed to utilize Cherenkov imaging to improve treatment delivery accuracy in real-time.

Methods: A Cherenkov imaging system was installed commissioned and calibrated for clinical use. The optimal room lighting conditions and imaging setup protocols were developed to optimize both image quality and patient experience.

Performance comparison of quantitative metrics for analysis of in vivo Cherenkov imaging incident detection during radiotherapy.

Objectives: Examine the responses of multiple image similarity metrics to detect patient positioning errors in radiotherapy observed through Cherenkov imaging, which may be used to optimize automated incident detection.

Methods: An anthropomorphic phantom mimicking patient vasculature, a biological marker seen in Cherenkov images, was simulated for a breast radiotherapy treatment. The phantom was systematically shifted in each translational direction, and Cherenkov images were captured during treatment delivery at each step.

One Year of Clinic-Wide Cherenkov Imaging for Discovery of Quality Improvement Opportunities in Radiation Therapy.

Purpose: Cherenkov imaging is clinically available as a radiation therapy treatment verification tool. The aim of this work was to discover the benefits of always-on Cherenkov imaging as a novel incident detection and quality improvement system through review of all imaging at our center.

Methods And Materials: Multicamera Cherenkov imaging systems were permanently installed in 3 treatment bunkers, imaging continuously over a year.

Estimation of diffuse Cherenkov optical emission from external beam radiation build-up in tissue.

Significance: Optical imaging of Cherenkov emission during radiation therapy could be used to verify dose delivery in real-time if a more comprehensive quantitative understanding of the factors affecting emission intensity could be developed.

Aim: This study aims to explore the change in diffuse Cherenkov emission intensity with x-ray beam energy from irradiated tissue, both theoretically and experimentally.

Approach: Derivation of the emitted Cherenkov signal was achieved using diffusion theory, and experimental studies with 6 to 18 MV energy x-rays were performed in tissue phantoms to confirm the model predictions as related to the radiation build-up factor with depth into tissue.