This report addresses uncertainties pertaining to brachytherapy single-source dosimetry preceding clinical use. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Technical Note 1297 are taken as reference standards for uncertainty formalism. Uncertainties in using det...

As noted repeatedly, the treatment of in-stent restenosis remains one of the most vexing shortcomings in interventional cardiology. Coronary restenosis is often manifested by symptom recurrence, which is translated into an increased rate of repeat revascularization. In this issue, Radke and colleagues report the results of a well-conducted meta-analysis with data gathered from published reports...

Background: Environmental gamma ray refers to the gamma radiation from terrestrial sources and building materials. In enclosed spaces radiation can become a health hazard leading to potential increase in the rates of lung cancer. The goal of this study is to assess the exposure to natural gamma radiation of children in the schools of Zanjan province. Method:The natural gamma radiation was asse...

Several groups are developing ultra-miniature x-ray machines for clinical use in radiation therapy. Current systems are for interstitial radiosurgery and for intravascular insertion for irradiation to prevent re-stenosis. Typical generating voltages are low, in the 20 to 40 kV range. It is well established that the biological effectiveness of such low-energy photons is large compared with highe...

PURPOSE Standard brachytherapy sources emit radiation in a non-preferential direction away from the source. Though treatment outcomes are good, this can lead to late skin and subcutaneous toxicities in sensitive structures. Proposed low dose rate directional sources for interstitial brachytherapy, showed to have an improvement in the dose uniformity within the subcutaneous volume, reduction in ...

Vascular Brachytherapy using beta and gamma radiation is the standard care for patients with in-stent restenosis (ISR). The reported incidence of ISR varies from 7-37% of patients who undergo bare metal stent implantation and is dependent on patient characteristics, lesion morphology, and procedural technique. The recurrence rate after treatment for ISR varies among reported series but remains ...

The objective of this study has been to compare treatment plans for patients treated with electronic brachytherapy (eBx) using the Axxent System as adjuvant therapy for early stage breast cancer with treatment plans prepared from the same CT image sets using an Ir-192 source. Patients were implanted with an appropriately sized Axxent balloon applicator based on tumor cavity size and shape. A CT...

A routine dose computation around brachytherapy seeds employing the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) has been demonstrated and likened to dose computations in a similar field based on the TG43 recommendations. In applying the FFT convolution model to dose computation, a dose convolution kernel which takes into consideration the anisotropy of the dose distribution around a brachytherapy source in th...

To the Editor, In the last decade, the number of low-energy photonemitting brachytherapy source manufacturers has dramatically grown, and there are now about 15 manufacturers for I and Pd encapsulated sources for permanent and temporary brachytherapy. More recently, several third party calibration services, some based in commercial radiopharmacies, have begun marketing “independent assays” of b...