title: Novel scintillation detector design and performance for proton radiography and computed tomography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Proton computed tomography (pCT) will enable accurate prediction of proton and ion range in a patient while providing the benefit of lower radiation exposure than in x-ray CT. The accuracy of the range prediction is essential for treatment planning in proton or ion therapy and depends upon the detector used to evaluate the water-equivalent path length (WEPL) of a proton passing through the object. A novel approach is presented for an inexpensive WEPL detector for pCT and proton radiography.
  
  
  METHODS
  A novel multistage detector with an aperture of 10 × 37.5 cm was designed to optimize the accuracy of the WEPL measurements while simplifying detector construction and the performance requirements of its components. The design of the five-stage detector was optimized through simulations based on the geant4 detector simulation toolkit, and the fabricated prototype was calibrated in water-equivalent millimeters with 200 MeV protons in the research beam line of the clinical proton synchrotron at Loma Linda University Medical Center. A special polystyrene step phantom was designed and built to speed up and simplify the calibration procedure. The calibrated five-stage detector was tested in the 200 MeV proton beam as part of the pCT head scanner, using a water phantom and polystyrene slabs to verify the WEPL reconstruction accuracy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The beam-test results demonstrated excellent performance of the new detector, in good agreement with the simulation results. The WEPL measurement accuracy is about 3.0 mm per proton in the 0-260 mm WEPL range required for a pCT head scan with a 200 MeV proton beam.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The new multistage design approach to WEPL measurements for proton CT and radiography has been prototyped and tested. The test results show that the design is competitive with much more expensive calorimeter and range-counter designs.
authors: Department of Basic Science, Loma Linda University, 11175 Campus Street, Loma Linda, California 92354.
authors: V A
authors: VA
authors: Bashkirov
authors: Department of Basic Science, Loma Linda University, 11175 Campus Street, Loma Linda, California 92354.
authors: R W
authors: RW
authors: Schulte
authors: Department of Basic Science, Loma Linda University, 11175 Campus Street, Loma Linda, California 92354.
authors: R F
authors: RF
authors: Hurley
authors: Physics Department, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064.
authors: R P
authors: RP
authors: Johnson
authors: Physics Department, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064.
authors: H F-W
authors: HF
authors: Sadrozinski
authors: Physics Department, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Zatserklyaniy
authors: Physics Department, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Plautz
authors: Centre for Medical Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Giacometti
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D004867:Equipment Design; D011522:Protons; D012588:Scintillation Counting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*; D035501:Uncertainty
chemical_list: D011522:Protons