Highlights
- •Automated kV planar radiographic imaging QA procedures were established.
- •Automated MV planar radiographic imaging QA procedures were established.
- •SNC Machine KV and MV QA phantoms and the accompanying software were utilized.
- •The proposed automated workflow was found to be straightforward and time efficient.
Abstract
Purpose
To establish automated quality assurance (QA) procedures for the kilovoltage (kV)
and the Megavoltage (MV) imagers of two linear accelerators (LINACS) using a commercial
software.
Methods
SNC Machine™ phantoms and software were used and the baseline values, tolerance and
action levels for various image quality parameters were defined. Scaling, spatial
resolution, contrast, uniformity and noise were considered, explored and evaluated
utilizing the appropriate phantoms and the accompanying software. kV and MV planar
radiographic images, for 6MV and 10MV beams were obtained for each LINAC. For both
kV and MV QA tasks, the baseline values for spatial resolution, contrast, uniformity
and noise were defined.
Results
Subsequent measurements performed were highly reproducible and within tolerance and
action levels, while noise showed variations. The calculated tolerance and action
levels for noise were looser compared to the other image quality metrics.
Conclusions
An automated QA workflow of the kV and MV planar radiographic mode of LINAC imagers’
was established and appears to be time effective.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 24, 2023
Accepted:
January 31,
2023
Received in revised form:
December 22,
2022
Received:
October 8,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
