Japanese Journal of Radiological Technology

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the ideal phantom should have similar T₁ and T₂ values to those of organs of interest for measuring the change in signal intensity, contrast ratio and contrast noise ratio. There have been several reports to develop such a phantom using materials with limited availability or complex methods. In this study, we have developed a simple phantom using indigestible dextrin and soluble calcium at 1.5-tesla MRI. The T₁ and T₂ values have been reduced by dissolving indigestible dextrin and soluble calcium in distilled water. The similar T₁ and T₂ values to those of organs (i.e., kidney cortex, kidney medulla, liver, spleen, pancreas, bone marrow, uterus myometrium, uterus endometrium, uterus cervix, prostate, brain white matter, and brain gray matter) have been obtained by varying the concentration of indigestible dextrin and soluble calcium. This phantom is easy to develop and has a potential to increase the accuracy of MRI phantom experiments.

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In external radiotherapy, the absorbed doses are measured using an ionization process in a gas-filled ionization chamber and estimated by the extended cavity theory. The calculation requires both the W-value of cavity gas and the restricted mass collision stopping powers (L/ρ) for the gas and medium. ICRU Report 37 gives us the data regarding the mass collision stopping powers (S/ρ) for several elements and chemical compounds or mixtures. However, there are no detailed data for L/ρ. In this study, we developed an in-house program to calculate the L/ρ for arbitrary substances by the use of the equation described in ICRU Report 37. With this program, we can search the calculated L/ρ easily. When we calculated L/ρ for chemical compounds and mixtures with implementation of Bragg’s additivity rule, a large error of density effect corrections was observed. Therefore, our program adopted both the mean excitation energy and density effect correction obtained by ESTAR, which was developed by Berger et al. With adoption of these values, the calculation accuracy of our program was improved. Our program is useful to search L/ρ for radiation dosimetry in radiotherapy.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was evaluate to impact of standardized uptake value (SUV) on the body trunk with truncation error of μ-map for CT attenuation correction (CTAC) in whole-body 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F] fluoro-D-glucose (¹⁸F-FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)/CT with use of anthropomorphic phantom. Methods: We used body phantom (2.5 MBq/l) including simulated tumor targets (11.25 MBq/l) and arm phantom. The CT scan was used with a field of view (FOV) of 50 cm. The μ-maps were created by assuming a state of the arm protruding from the FOV (Pmap). A 3D-PET scan with an emission time of 20 min was performed. The PET images were then reconstructed with CTAC, and with and without scatter correction. We evaluated the relationship to Pmap size and the count of simulated tumors and background (B.G.) in PET images which reconstructed the use of each Pmap, respectively. Results: The count of simulated tumor (large) with scatter correction was decreased to 1.3% (Pmap: 15 mm) and 8.8% (Pmap: 35 mm). Then, the count severe reduction was 86.9% in Pmap of 65 mm. The same trend was shown by simulated tumor (middle, small) and B.G. The count of the simulated tumor (large) without scatter correction decreased to 1.3% (Pmap: 15 mm), 6.4% (Pmap: 35 mm) and 13.1% (Pmap: 65 mm). Conclusion: Truncation error by μ-map for CTAC in whole-body ¹⁸F-PET/CT caused a decrease of the SUV on the body trunk used for attenuation and scatter correction in the PET images.

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