Establishing radiation therapy treatment planning effects involving implantable pacemakers and implantable cardioverter‐defibrillators

Recent improvements to the functionality and stability of implantable pacemakers and cardioverter-defibrillators involve changes that include efficient battery power consumption and radiation hardened electrical circuits. Manufacturers have also pursued MRI-compatibility for these devices. While such newer models of pacemakers and cardioverter-defibrillators are similar in construction to previously marketed devices - even for the recent MRI-compatible designs currently in clinical trials - there is increased interest now with regard to radiation therapy dose effects when a device is near or directly in the field of radiation. Specifically, the limitation on dose to the device from therapeutic radiation beams is being investigated for a possible elevation in limiting dose above 200 cGy. We present here the first-ever study that evaluates dosimetric effects from implantable pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in high energy X-ray beams from a medical accelerator. Treatment plan simulations were analyzed for four different pacemakers and five different implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and intercompared with direct measurements from a miniature ionization chamber in water. All defibrillators exhibited the same results and all pacemakers were seen to display the same consequences, within only a +/- 1.8% deviation for all X-ray energies studied. Attenuation, backscatter, and lateral scatter were determined to be -13.4%, 2.1% and 1.5% at 6 MV, and -6.1%, 3.1% and 5.1% at 18 MV for the defibrillator group. For the pacemaker group, this research showed results of -15.9%, 2.8% and 2.5% at 6 MV, and -9.4%, 3.4% and 5.7% at 18 MV, respectively. Limited results were discovered from scattering processes through computer modeling. Strong verification from measurements was concluded with respect to simulating attenuation characteristics. For IP and ICD leads, measured dose changes were less than 4%, existing as attenuation processes only, and invariant with regard to X-ray energy.