title: Development of ammonium tartrate as an ESR dosimeter material for clinical purposes.
abstract: The crystalline substance ammonium tartrate is investigated with respect to its suitability as a clinical dosimetry material. The properties investigated are: the radical stability for absorbed doses relevant for clinical use, the improvement in sensitivity when the crystals are deuterated and the linear electron transfer (LET)-dependence. After photon irradiation to an absorbed dose of 20 Gy, the signal increases rapidly during the first 6 h. After this period, the changes are more moderate and can be corrected for. The signal-to-noise ratio of irradiated ammonium tartrate is twice the corresponding value of alanine. By deuterating the crystals, the sensitivity can be further improved by a factor of 1.4. As expected, the signal decreases with increasing LET of the radiation, but no changes in the spectrum shape was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Physics, IMV, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linkoping, Sweden. sara.olsson@raf.liu.se
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lund
mesh_terms: D003903:Deuterium; D004578:Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005609:Free Radicals; D006801:Humans; D018499:Linear Energy Transfer; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D013644:Tartrates / Q000528:radiation effects*
chemical_list: D005609:Free Radicals; D013644:Tartrates; D003903:Deuterium; C029768:tartaric acid