Operation of the Preclinical Head Scanner for Proton CT.
We report on the operation and performance tests of a preclinical head scanner developed for proton computed tomography (pCT). After extensive preclinical testing, pCT is intended to be employed in support of proton therapy treatment planning and pre-treatment verification in patients undergoing particle-beam therapy. In order to assess the performance of the scanner, we have performed CT scans with 200 MeV protons from both the synchrotron of the Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) and the cyclotron of the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center (NMCPC). The very high sustained rate of data acquisition, exceeding one million protons per second, allowed a full 360° scan to be completed in less than 7 minutes. The reconstruction of various phantoms verified accurate reconstruction of the proton relative stopping power (RSP) and the spatial resolution in a variety of materials. The dose for an image with better than 1% uncertainty in the RSP is found to be close to 1 mGy.
SCIPP, U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Sadrozinski
SCIPP, U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Geoghegan
SCIPP, U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Harvey
SCIPP, U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Johnson
SCIPP, U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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Plautz
SCIPP, U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
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A
Zatserklyaniy
Division of Radiation Research, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA.
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Bashkirov
Division of Radiation Research, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA.
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Hurley
Division of Radiation Research, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA.
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Piersimoni
Division of Radiation Research, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA.
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Schulte
School of Engineering and Computer Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
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Karbasi
School of Engineering and Computer Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
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Schubert
School of Engineering and Computer Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
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Schultze
Center for Medical Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
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Giacometti