Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Commissioning of A Solid Tank Design For Fan-Beam Optical CT Based 3D Radiation Dosimetry
Commissioning of A Solid Tank Design For Fan-Beam Optical CT Based 3D Radiation Dosimetry
Commissioning of A Solid Tank Design For Fan-Beam Optical CT Based 3D Radiation Dosimetry
PAPER
Keywords: optical CT, optical computed tomography, 3 dimensional radiation dosimetry, gel dosimetry, dosimeter imaging, 3D dosimetry
Original content from this
work may be used under
the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0
licence.
Abstract
Any further distribution of Objective. Optical computed tomography (CT) is one of the leading modalities for imaging gel
this work must maintain
attribution to the
dosimeters used in the verification of complex radiotherapy treatments. In previous work, a novel fan-
author(s) and the title of beam optical CT scanner design was proposed that could significantly reduce the volume of the
the work, journal citation
and DOI. refractive index baths that are commonly found in optical CT systems. Here, the proposed scanner has
been manufactured and commissioned. Approach. Image reconstruction is performed through
algebraic reconstruction technique and iterated using the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding
algorithm (FISTA) algorithm. Ray tracing for algebraic reconstruction was performed using an in-
house developed ray tracing simulator. A set of Sylgard® 184 phantoms were created to commission
spatial resolution, geometric deformity, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and scan settings.
Main Results. The scanner is capable of a 0.929 mm−1 spatial resolution, observed at 200 iterations,
although the spatial resolution is highly dependent on the number of iterations. The geometric
distortion, measured by scanning a needle phantom with the prototype scanner as well as a
conventional x-ray CT was found to be within <0.25 mm. The CNR was found to peak between 65
and 190 occurring between 50 and 100 iterations and was highly dependent on the region chosen for
background noise calculation. The proposed scanner is capable of scanning and reading out slices in
less than 1 min per slice. Significance. This work displays the viability of a fan-beam optical CT scanner
with minimal index matching using ray-traced algebraic reconstruction.
1. Introduction
Radiation therapy (RT) is a non-surgical approach to treating cancerous tumors. The damage from high-energy
particles does not discriminate between cancerous and healthy tissue, meaning tumor-targeted delivery of
radiation is required to effectively treat cancer as well as spare healthy tissue. As the precision of treatment
increases, so does the demand for effective dosimetric tools to verify the accuracy of tumor-targeted treatments.
Three-dimensional dosimeters offer an accurate and robust way to verify complex dose distributions within a
volume.
Three-dimensional dosimeters are often a composition of radio-sensitive chemicals that have been set in
some material matrix such as gelatin, or plastic. The radio-sensitive chemicals react in a known and measurable
way to the absorbed dose. It has been shown that three-dimensional dosimeters have the potential to be an
exceptional tool for three-dimensional dose verification (Jackson et al 2015). One of the pervasive concerns for
three-dimensional dosimeters is how to quickly and accurately read out the absorbed dose information from the
dosimeter can be performed.
The three main read out methods are magnetic resonance imaging, x-ray computed tomography (CT), and
optical CT (Baldock et al 2010). Optical CT became a possible candidate for scanning three-dimensional
dosimeters in 1996 when Gore et al showed that optical CT could be used to scan PAG polymer gel dosimeters
© 2023 The Author(s). Published on behalf of Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine by IOP Publishing Ltd
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
(Gore et al 1996). Subsequent works have produced a large variety of scanner designs and methods (Doran et al
2001, Oldham et al 2001, Wuu et al 2003, Krstajić and Doran 2006, Sakhalkar and Oldham 2008, Campbell et al
2013, Deene 2019).
Typically, optical CT systems utilize a standard filtered back projection (FBP) technique to reconstruct
images. While FBP is an ideal reconstruction method for conventional x-ray CT, it can be challenging to use in
optical CT due to the introduction of light refraction. The FBP reconstruction assumes a straight ray path from
the source to the detector. This assumption necessitates that refractions in the ray path are heavily reduced or
removed in optical CT systems. One of the most prevalent techniques to reduce refractive artifacts is an index
matching bath (Gore et al 1996, Wolodzko et al 1999, Xu et al 2004, Krstajić and Doran 2007, Campbell et al
2013). Refractive baths can be cumbersome, messy, and undesirable to work with, as they are typically a large
volume (1–15 l) of some chemical mixture (water, glycerol, propylene glycol, etc) that has to be maintained and
monitored, else mixtures can separate or evaporate over long scanning periods which results in refractive
mismatches and image artifacts (Doran and Yatigammana 2012, Deene 2019).
Previously published works produced an optimized scanner geometry that allowed for a large reduction in
the need for index matching (Chisholm et al 2015, Ogilvy et al 2020). In the work of Ogilvy et al, the optimization
process simulated thousands of design geometries, tracking ray paths, ray intensity, and overall attenuation. The
designs were scored based on metrics that would influence overall image quality, and a ‘best’ geometry was
found. The purpose of this work is to manufacture and commission the ‘best’ geometry scanner. The prototype
CT scanner manufactured in this work is unique in that it features a solid acrylic block with minimal index
matching fluid (5 –30 ml), and does not require rays to travel a direct path from source to detector. This scanner
uses a modified version of the ray tracing simulator, created during the design phase, to implement the algebraic
reconstruction technique and iteratively reconstructs images with the Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding
Algorithm (FISTA) algorithm.
In this work, we manufacture and commission the prototype scanner. The focus of the commissioning was
the establishment of the scanner’s performance characteristics relating to geometric distortion, spatial
resolution, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and scan settings. This work shows that a prototype optical CT
scanner that reduces refractive index matching baths to <30 ml and incorporates ray-path tracing into its
reconstruction is capable of reconstructing high-quality images.
2
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Figure 1. (a) Top-view schematic representation of the solid tank optical CT scanner. The gap between the dosimeter and the solid
tank filled with index matching fluid is highlighted. (b) A cross-sectional side-view schematic representation of the solid tank optical
CT scanner. It can be seen how the o-ring allows for the formation of a small bath between the acrylic block and the dosimeter
container.
The optics of the scanner were designed for use with FlexyDos3D dosimeters (Deene et al 2015). However,
FlexyDos3D dosimeters have unfavorable qualities for performing commissioning experiments. The dose
response of FlexyDos3D dosimeters exponentially decays with time (<120 h), and over time the background
attenuation increases (Deene et al 2015, Høye et al 2015). An ideal commissioning phantom would be reusable
and unchanging between uses. The material of choice for commissioning was Sylgard® 184, which makes up
95% of a FlexyDos3D dosimeter by weight and has nearly identical optical properties. Sylgard® 184, commonly
referred to as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), is made of a 10:1 mixture of a silicone elastomer and curing agent.
Any attenuation added to a phantom was done using Silc PigTM Black (Smooth-On, Macungie, PA, USA), a
pigment designed to dye silicone products.
2.2. Reconstruction
The gold standard for CT reconstruction was FBP up until the last decade, when there has been a rapid increase
in the use of iterative reconstruction techniques for image formation (Willemink and Noël 2018). For the
current scanning system, the lack of straight-ray geometry renders filtered back-projection an incompatible
method of image reconstruction. During the design phase of the research, it was determined that an algebraic
reconstruction technique (ART) could be used to reconstruct without straight-ray geometry as long as ray paths
are known. The system matrix used in the iterative reconstructing algorithm is built in-house and based on the
ray-tracing simulator created for the scanner design optimization (Ogilvy et al 2020). In 2021, Guenter et al
identified several viable algorithms for CT imaging (Guenter et al 2022). Of those, the FISTA has high
performance when a stopping condition is unknown, and can be run to higher number of iterations without fear
of over-iterating. In this work the FISTA algorithm was chosen to be used throughout the commissioning of the
proposed scanner in order to minimize the effects of iteration stopping number on subsequent image analysis.
3
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Figure 2. A pictorial representation of a spatial resolution phantom with a high attenuation column.
filling the gap between the block and the phantom container. The true position of the needles was determined by
scanning the needle phantom with a Lightspeed RT 16 (GE Medical Systems Chicago, Illinois) x-ray CT scanner
at 120 kVp, 1.25 mm slice thickness, and a field-of-view of 250 mm at the isocenter. Axial scans were then
performed using the prototype scanner to compare the needle position against the x-ray CT. Each needle was
segmented into a region of interest (ROI), converted to binary, and the MATLAB centroid function was used to
find the cross-sectional midpoint of each needle.
4
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Figure 3. Needles arranged in a grid pattern were fixed in Sylgard® 184 with water in the bore gap. (a) A cross-sectional slice from the
x-ray CT can be seen. The image has been cropped and resized such that the x-ray image can be compared to optical CT. (b) A cross-
sectional slice from the proposed optical CT scanner. (c) The two images are overlaid, where x-ray CT is the blue channel, optical CT is
the red channel, and their overlap appears magenta.
5
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Figure 4. (a) A reconstructed scan image of the phantom that has been cropped to the ROI around the high-attenuation region. (b) A
scatter plot of individual normalized pixel intensity versus the distance that the pixel falls from the centroid of the high-attenuation
region. (c) Profiles through the center of the circular spatial resolution phantom (row 342) show a steeper edge for 200 iterations. (d)
The MTF at 80 and 200 iterations from the spatial resolution phantom once ESF cropping has been implemented. Highlighted is the
MTF50 for each data set.
Table 1. The MTF spatial resolution in mm−1 as the number of iterations increases.
Uncropped
MTF50 0.0337 0.0596 0.171 0.519 0.666 0.607 0.624
MTF20 0.0860 0.136 0.458 1.101 1.382 1.285 1.295
KARI Method
MTF50 — — 0.656 0.795 0.929 0.838 0.835
MTF20 — — 1.066 1.243 1.412 1.332 1.329
6
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Figure 5. A comparison of the linear attenuation coefficients measured of a dyed water solution by the prototype optical CT scanner
and a spectrophotometer. A linear relationship can be seen with a slope of 0.906.
Figure 6. A 360° scan was collected on a blank Sylgard® 184 phantom. The projections were binned and averaged into 0.5° steps. The
average response of each detector was found, as well as the standard deviation of each detector. Shown is the standard deviation as a
percent of the mean for each of the 320 detector elements. It can be seen that the highest standard deviations are found near the
periphery of the detector array where ray paths have experienced more extreme refraction. The 5-projection collection took 42 s to
collect and the 20-projection collection took 209 s to collect.
intensity. A total of 1830 projections are collected at each of the exposure times. After a slice has rotated 360°, the
detector memory is read out to the computer while the motors move to the next slice.
During the scan-settings tests, it was found that the prevalence of detector noise is most prominent on the
detectors that are collecting heavily refracted rays. As more projections are used per slice, and as the detectors are
exposed for longer acquisition times, the noise of refracted-ray detectors is not reduced at a proportional
amount compared to rays that experience less refraction. It can be seen in figure 6 that the peripheral rays of the
fan arc have their noise reduced by a similar amount as the central rays, rather than scaling multiplicatively.
7
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Figure 7. The CNR of two high attenuation ROIs is compared with a number of different background ROIs. It can be seen how the
CNR is affected as the number of iterations increases. Shown in (a) is a 200 iterations reconstruction, with the signal ROIs in red, and
the background ROIs in various colors, (b) a plot of CNR versus iterations, and (c) the same 200 iteration reconstruction from (a), but
with the image dynamic range scaled to 0.2–0.3 of the max signal. The non-uniform background attenuation shown in (c) influences
the CNR value depending on where the background ROI is taken from.
Figure 8. Shown is a sinogram of a the needle phantom from figure 3 with many sharp edges. (a) The region highlighted in red is data
collected by faulty detectors prior to being inpainted and (b) the same region after being inpainted using EBIIT.
where μ is the mean of a defined ROI. The CNR was calculated at ascending numbers of iterations, using
multiple ROIs from the background (figure 7(a)). It can be seen that the CNR peaks around 50–100 iterations
before falling slightly (figure 7(b)). The range of maximum CNR was between 65 and 190, and was highly
dependant on where the sample region for the background is taken. It can be seen that the noise texture is
influenced by the proximity to highly attenuating structures (figure 7(c)), thus affecting the CNR value.
Noise characterization can be challenging in iterative reconstruction systems. Specifically, with the FISTA
algorithm higher iterations result in a smoothing effect. The smoothing effect can be clearly seen in the corners
of the square insert of figure 7(a) where the corners have become rounded. An additional biproduct of the
smoothing means that a scan of a blank PDMS phantom would result in a reported noise of zero, which is not
accurate.
8
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
of EBIIT limitations. In preliminary reconstructions with linear interpolation, results provided a worse image
than EBIIT.
4. Conclusion
A prototype optical CT scanner was manufactured based on the optimized and simulated design of a previous
work (Ogilvy et al 2020). The design focuses on a large reduction in the need for refractive index matching by
physical design, and iterative reconstruction that accounts for refraction in the ray path. Each iteration of the
FISTA algorithm takes about 0.9 s to complete, meaning a 200 iteration reconstruction is performed in around 3
min. The prototype scanner was commissioned and found to have a maximum spatial resolution of
MTF50 = 0.929 mm−1 which peaked around 200 iterations. The scanner has a linear response to attenuation.
The geometric distortion was measured by comparing needle alignment between the prototype scanner and an
x-ray CT machine. Center-of-intensity needle alignment was <0.25 mm for all 18 needles. It was found that the
scanner can collect as quickly as 45 s per slice, but can be run slower to reduce electronic noise. Regardless of
settings, electronic noise was found most prevalent on detectors that receive heavily refracted rays. The contrast
of the system peaks around 50–100 iterations, and the CNR peak has a wide range (65–190) which depends
heavily on the sampling region for the background attenuation.
The future of this work may be to categorize a set of reconstruction algorithms that perform best in specific
scenarios and focus on either spatial resolution, contrast, or noise. It is believed that the FISTA algorithm will not
be the optimal algorithm for all cases, and further investigation into reconstruction algorithms is required.
Another potential future to this work could be introducing more complicated design geometries that further
reduce the scanner size, and allow for optical collection via CCD.
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available at the following URL: https://osf.io/dwvsn/
?view_only=b1fa330f52a6406797d1b36653991703. Data will be available from 13 February 2023.
ORCID iDs
A Ogilvy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8214-3675
References
Baldock C, De Deene Y, Doran S, Ibbott G, Jirasek A, Lepage M, McAuley K B, Oldham M and Schreiner L J 2010 Polymer gel dosimetry
Phys. Med. Biol. 55 R1–R63
Campbell W G, Rudko D A, Braam N A, Wells D M and Jirasek A 2013 A prototype fan-beam optical CT scanner for 3D dosimetry Med.
Phys. 40 061712
Chisholm K, Miles D, Rankine L and Oldham M 2015 Investigations into the feasibility of optical-CT 3D dosimetry with minimal use of
refractively matched fluids Med. Phys. 42 2607–14
Criminisi A, Perez P and Toyama K 2003 Object removal by exemplar-based inpainting IEEE Computer Society Conf. on Computer Vision and
Pattern Recognition, 2003. Proc. vol 2, II–II
Deene Y D 2019 Feasibility study of a dry optical ct scanner using aspherical lenses J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1305 012018
Deene Y D, Skyt P S, Hil R and Booth J T 2015 FlexyDos3d: a deformable anthropomorphic 3D radiation dosimeter: radiation properties
Phys. Med. Biol. 60 1543–63
Doran S J, Koerkamp K K, Bero M A, Jenneson P, Morton E J and Gilboy W B 2001 A CCD-based optical CT scanner for high-resolution 3D
imaging of radiation dose distributions: equipment specifications, optical simulations and preliminary results Phys. Med. Biol. 46
3191–213
Doran S J and Yatigammana D N B 2012 Eliminating the need for refractive index matching in optical ct scanners for radiotherapy
dosimetry: I. concept and simulations Phys. Med. Biol. 57 665–83
Gore J C, Ranade M, Maryañski M J and Schulz R J 1996 Radiation dose distributions in three dimensions from tomographic optical density
scanning of polymer gels: I. development of an optical scanner Phys. Med. Biol. 41 2695–704
Guenter M, Collins S, Ogilvy A, Hare W and Jirasek A 2022 Superiorization versus regularization: a comparison of algorithms for solving
image reconstruction problems with applications in computed tomography Med. Phys. 49 1065–82
Høye E M, Skyt P S, Yates E S, Muren L P, Petersen J B B and Balling P 2015 A new dosimeter formulation for deformable 3D dose
verification J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 573 012067
Jackson J, Juang T, Adamovics J and Oldham M 2015 An investigation of PRESAGE®3d dosimetry for IMRT and VMAT radiation therapy
treatment verification Phys. Med. Biol. 60 2217–30
Jhaveri J et al 2019 Does size matter? investigating the optimal planning target volume margin for postoperative stereotactic radiosurgery to
resected brain metastases J. Neurosurgery 130 797–803
Jordan K 2013 Optical computed tomography liquid calibration phantom J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 444 012076
Kak A C and Slaney M 2001 Algebraic Reconstruction Algorithms Principles of computerized tomographic imaging ed R E O'Malley Jr.
(Philadelphia: Soc. Ind. Appl. Math.) 7 275–96 (https://epubs.siam.org/doi/abs/10.1137/1.9780898719277)
9
Phys. Med. Biol. 68 (2023) 175034 A Ogilvy et al
Kron T 2008 Reduction of margins in external beam radiotherapy J. Med. Phys. 33 41–2
Krstajić N and Doran S J 2006 Focusing optics of a parallel beam CCD optical tomography apparatus for 3D radiation gel dosimetry Phys.
Med. Biol. 51 2055–75
Krstajić N and Doran S J 2007 Fast laser scanning optical-CT apparatus for 3D radiation dosimetry Phys. Med. Biol. 52 N257–63
Liu M, Cygler J E and Vandervoort E 2020 Patient-specific ptv margins for liver stereotactic body radiation therapy determined using
support vector classification with an early warning system for margin adaptation Med. Phys. 47 5172–82
Ogilvy A, Collins S, Tuokko T, Hilts M, Deardon R, Hare W and Jirasek A 2020 Optimization of solid tank design for fan-beam optical ct
based 3D radiation dosimetry Phys. Med. Biol. 65 245012
Oldham M, Siewerdsen J H, Kumar S, Wong J and Jaffray D A 2003 Optical-CT gel-dosimetry i: basic investigations Med. Phys. 30 623–34
Oldham M, Siewerdsen J H, Shetty A and Jaffray D A 2001 High resolution gel-dosimetry by optical-CT and MR scanning Med. Phys. 28
1436–45
Sakhalkar H S and Oldham M 2008 Fast, high-resolution 3D dosimetry utilizing a novel optical-CT scanner incorporating tertiary
telecentric collimation Med. Phys. 35 101–11
Viallefont-Robinet F, Helder D, Fraisse R, Newbury A, van den Bergh F, Lee D and Saunier S 2018 Comparison of mtf measurements using
edge method: towards reference data set Opt. Express 26 33625–48
Willemink M and Noël P 2018 The evolution of image reconstruction for ctfrom filtered back projection to artificial intelligence Eur. Radiol.
29 2185–95
Wolodzko J G, Marsden C and Appleby A 1999 CCD imaging for optical tomography of gel radiation dosimeters Med. Phys. 26 2508–13
Wuu C-S, Schiff P, Maryanski M J, Liu T, Borzillary S and Weinberger J 2003 Dosimetry study of re-188 liquid balloon for intravascular
brachytherapy using polymer gel dosimeters and laser-beam optical CT scanner Med. Phys. 30 132–7
Xu Y, Wuu C-S and Maryanski M J 2004 Performance of a commercial optical CT scanner and polymer gel dosimeters for 3-D dose
verification Med. Phys. 31 3024–33
10