COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IMAGING TO QUANTIFY IODINE DISTRIBUTION IN IODODEOXYURIDINE-LABELED DNA A Thesis

ii Acknowledgments I dedicate this work to my uncle Scott whose thirst for knowledge and positive attitude despite all odds was inspirational and I dedicate this to my beautiful wife Christina who somehow put up with me through all of this while she obtained her own degree from the LSU School of law. How she kept from doing me great physical harm I'll never know. I offer my heartfelt thanks to the cast and crew of LSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, and LSU's Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices. I, quite literally, couldn't have done it without you. Table 1: Comparison of in vivo studies of continuous intravenous infusions (Cook et al 1992) and perorally administered (Kinsella et al 1994) IUdR incorporation into DNA. Table 7: Results from hemocytometry measurements of cell density. Each cell per grid square corresponds to 10 6 cells per ml in suspension. Three squares were added to obtain the cell count.. Table 8: For Si640c, the three brightest Debye-Scherrer cones correspond to the first three lattice spacings d. The lattice spacing is determined by dividing the lattice parameter a by the RSS of the Miller indices; H, K, and L. Figure 3: V-79 Chinese hamster cell survival curves plotted as a function of dose. (Δ) IUdR-labeled cells irradiated at 33.4 keV, (◊) IUdR-labeled cells irradiated at 32.9 keV, and (○) control cells irradiated at 32.9 keV. Figure 4: Dose enhancement as a function of photon energy for x-ray activated Auger electron radiotherapy. Each curve represents a different percentage of thymidine molecules in DNA replaced by IUdR. Figure 5: (Top curve) X-ray flux from National Synchrotron Light Source at 250 mA ring current compared to (bottom curve) the flux from a 100 kW x-ray tube at 110 kVp measured 1 meter from the source. Figure 7: Illustration of the role of x-rays in image formation. Uncollided X-rays reaching the detector plane carry information about the subject. X-rays which interact with the subject are removed entirely from the resulting image or they contribute to noise or blurring.. Figure 8: A simulated object (left) and its sinogram (right). Sinogram consists of projections acquired over 180º with 1º step size.. Figure 10: Beam hardening effect illustrated by comparing filtered x-ray spectrum to the same beam after traversing 6 cm of tissue (Dilmanian et al. 1992). Figure 11: Mass energy absorption coefficients [ ρ …