Absorbed Dose Determination in External Beam Radiotherapy:

An International Code of Practice for Dosimetry based on Standards of Absorbed Dose to Water
IAEA Technical Reports Series (TRS) 398
Worksheet for high-energy electron beams

This file contains the electronic version of the expressions, data and interpolation routines needed for the
implementation of the IAEA Code of Practice (CoP) TRS-398.

You have opened this file with the option "Macros Disabled".
In order to used the spreadsheet the MACROS MUST BE ENABLED,
otherwise unpredictable results can be obtained.

Close the file and re-open with the option "Macros Enabled".

Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics Section

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
P.O. Box 100
A-1400 Vienna
Austria

E-mail: dosimetry@iaea.org
Fax:+43 1 26007 21662
 Worksheet for the determination of the absorbed dose to water
in an electron-beam
User: Date:

1. Radiation treatment unit and reference conditions for Dw,Q determination

Accelerator:
Nominal energy: MeV
Nominal dose rate: MU min Measured R50 :
-1
g cm-2
Reference phantom: ✘ water plastic obtained from ✘ ionization dose curves
Reference field size: cm x cm Reference SSD: 100 cm
Beam quality, Q (R50,w): g cm-2 Ref. depth zref,w = 0.6 R50 - 0.1: g cm-2

2. Ionization chamber and electrometer

Ion. chamber model Roos Serial No.: ✘ pp cyl
Chamber wall / window material: PMMA thickness: 0.1180 g cm-2
Waterproof sleeve material: thickness: g cm-2
Phantom window material: thickness: g cm-2

Abs. dose-to-water calibration factor a N D , w, Q = ✘ Gy/nC Gy/rdg

0
Calibration quality Q0: ✘ Co-60 electron beam Calibration depth: 5.0 g cm-2
If Q0 is electron beam, give R50,w: g cm-2
Reference conditions for calibration
P0: 101.3 kPa T0: 20.0 °C Rel. humidity: 10 %

Pol. potential V1: V Calib. polarity: ✘ +ve -ve ✘ corrected for polarity effect
User polarity: ✘ +ve -ve

Calibration laboratory: Date:

Electrometer model: Serial no.:
Calib. separately from chamber: yes ✘ no Range setting:
If yes Calibration laboratory: Date:

3. Phantom
Water phantom window material: thickness: g cm-2
Plastic phantom phantom material: density: g cm-3
depth scaling factor cpl: reference depth zref,pl = zref / cpl: g cm-2
fluence scaling factor : hpl =

4. Dosimetry reading b and correction for influence quantities

Uncorrected dosimeter reading at V1 and user polarity: ✘nC rdg
Corresponding accelerator monitor units: MU
Ratio of dosimeter reading and monitor units: M1 = ✘ nC/MU rdg/MU
(i) P: 101.3 kPa T: 20.0 °C Rel. humidity: 50 %
( 273 . 2+T ) P 0
k TP = = 1.0000
( 273 . 2+T 0 ) P

(ii) Electrometer calibration factor kelec = nC/rdg dimensionless

(iii) Polarity correction c rdg at +V1: M+ = rdg at -V1: M- =

|M +|+|M −|
k pol = =
2M

Page 2 of 4 495874796.xls
(iv) Recombination correction (two-voltage method)
Polarizing voltages: V1 (normal) = V V2 (reduced) = V
Readings at each V: M1 = M2 =
Voltage ratio V1 / V2 = Read. ratio M1 / M2 =
Beam type: ✘ pulsed pulsed-scanned
a0 = a1 = a2 =
2
M1 M1
k s=a0 + a1
( ) ( )
M2
+a 2
M2
=
d

Corrected dosimeter reading at the voltage V1:

M Q=M 1 h pl k TP k elec k pol k s = ✘ nC / MU rdg / MU

Warning:
5. Absorbed dose to water at the reference depth, zref kQ values are available only for
Beam quality correction factor for user quality Q: 1 £ Q(R50,w) £ 20 (see CoP Sec. 7)
If Q0 is 60Co Table 18 gives k Q ,Q = N/A
0
If Q0 is electron beam Table 19 gives k Q ,Q = kQ =
int
0 ,Q int
Use k Q ,Q derived from
0 k Q ,Q
int
k Q ,Q0 = =
k Q o , Qint
If k Q ,Q is derived from series of electron beam calibrations k Q ,Q =
0 0
Calibration laboratory: Date:

Dw , Q (z ref )=M Q N D ,w , Q k Q ,Q = Gy / MU
0 0

6. Absorbed dose rate to water at the depth of dose maximum, zmax

Depth of dose maximum: zmax = g cm-2

Percentage depth-dose at zref for a cm x cm field size:

PDD(zref = g cm-2 ) = %
Absorbed-dose calibration of monitor at zmax :

Dw , Q (z max )=100 Dw , Q ( z ref )/ PDD (z ref ) = Gy / MU

Notes:

Page 3 of 4 495874796.xls
a Note that if Q0 is 60Co, N D , w, Q is denoted ND,w
0
b
All readings should be checked for leakage and corrected if necessary
c M in the denominator of kpol denotes reading at the user polarity. Preferably, each reading in the equation
should be the average of the ratios of M (or M+ or M-) to the reading of an external monitor, Mem.
d
Check that M 1 / M 2 −1
k s−1≈
V 1 / V 2 −1
k s−1=
M 1 / M 2 −1
=
V 1 / V 2 −1

Page 4 of 4 495874796.xls