title: Dosimetric and mechanical characteristics of a commercial dynamic microMLC used in SRS.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this work is to carry out mechanical and dosimetric assessments on a commercial dynamic micromulti leaf collimator system to be used for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT). Mechanical parameters such as leaf position accuracy with different gantry angles and leaf position reproducibility were measured. Also dosimetric measurements of the interleaf leakage, intraleaf transmission, penumbra width, and light field alignment were carried out. Furthermore, measurements of output factors (Sep) and in-air factors (Se) for the microMLC system will be reported.
  
  
  METHODS
  EBT2 films were used to assess the leaf position error with gantry angle and after stress test, penumbra width and light field alignment. Leaf leakage was quantified using both EBT2 film and a pinpoint ion chamber. With regard to output factors, the pinpoint chamber was placed in a water phantom at 10 cm depth and 100 cm SSD. For in-air output factor measurements, 0.2 cm of brass was placed above the photon diode as build-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Measurements of mechanical parameters gave values of 0.05 cm (SD 0.035) for the average leaf position accuracy for different gantry angles and after stress test. Dosimetric measurements, yielded values of 0.22 +/- 0.01 and 0.24 +/- 0.01 cm, respectively, for side and head leaf penumbras. Also, average leaf abutting, leakage and transmission were found to be 0.65, 0.91, and 0.20%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  (a) The add-on microMLC system in combination with our LINAC has been commissioned to be used for clinical purposes and showed good agreement with published results for different ,MLC types. (b) This work has lead to the recommendation that leaves should be recalibrated after ten static beams or after each dynamic arc.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Hermitage Medical Clinic, Dublin 20, Ireland.
authors.forename: Mohamed M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Galal
authors.forename: Sinéad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keogh
authors.forename: Sultan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khalil
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008904:Miniaturization; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity