title: Performance evaluation and quality assurance of Varian enhanced dynamic wedges.
abstract: Dynamic wedges have been used in clinical practice for many years. Obvious superiority of dynamic over physical wedges is accompanied by the increased overhead involved in verifying the accuracy and reliability of their use. Contrary to very limited QA required to ensure proper functioning of the physical wedges, dynamic wedges, like any other dynamic treatment, require a robust QA program. This work expands upon previous suggestions and describes a comprehensive QA program for Varian enhanced dynamic wedges (EDWs) and presents the results of an 18-month evaluation of these wedges. The QA program includes daily, monthly, and yearly tests and individual treatment QA at the onset of use of the EDWs. The results of the 18-month evaluation show reproducibility in the wedge factors of better than 1% and in dose profiles of better than 2% on a monthly basis. Daily output measurements are generally within 2% of expected values.
authors.affiliation: Department of Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. alaei001@umn.edu
authors.forename: Parham
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alaei
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Higgins
mesh_terms: D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D010315:Particle Accelerators / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011881:Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software; D012986:Software Validation