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@ARTICLE{Simard:362971,
author = {Simard, Mikaël and Fullarton, Ryan and Volz, Lennart and
Schuy, Christoph and Robertson, Daniel G. and Toltz, Allison
and Baker, Colin and Beddar, Sam and Graeff, Christian and
Fekete, Charles-Antoine Collins},
title = {{A} comparison of carbon ions versus protons for integrated
mode ion imaging},
journal = {Medical physics},
volume = {52},
number = {5},
issn = {0094-2405},
address = {Hoboken, NJ},
publisher = {Wiley},
reportid = {GSI-2025-01214},
pages = {3097 - 3106},
year = {2025},
note = {This is an open access article under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use,
distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.},
abstract = {Incorporating image guidance into ion beam therapy is
critical for minimizing beam range uncertainties and
realizing the modality's potential. One promising avenue for
image guidance is to capture transmission ion radiographs
(iRads) before and/or during treatment. iRad image quality
is typically maximized using a single-event imaging system,
which involves tracking individual ions, albeit the approach
is generally not suited to clinical beam settings. An
alternative faster and clinically compatible method is
integrated mode imaging, where individual pencil beam data
is acquired, rather than single ion data. To evaluate the
usefulness of transmission ion imaging for image guidance,
it is crucial to evaluate the image quality of integrated
mode iRad systems.We report extensive image quality metrics
of integrated mode carbon ion radiographs (cRads) and
compare them with proton radiographs (pRads).iRads were
obtained at the Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center using a
plastic volumetric scintillator equipped with CCD cameras.
The detector captures orthogonal views of the 3D energy
deposition in the scintillator from individual pencil beams.
Four phantoms were scanned using a 15 × 15 cm 2 $15\times
15 \ {\rm cm}^2$ field of view and a beam spacing of 1 mm.
First, 9 tissue-substitute inserts were used to evaluate
water equivalent thickness (WET) accuracy. Radiographs of
those inserts were reconstructed for beam spacings ranging
from 1 to 7 mm to evaluate the impact of spacing on
quantitative accuracy. For spatial resolution, custom 3D
printed line pair (lp) modules ranging from 0.5 to 10 lp/cm
were scanned. To evaluate low contrast detectability, a
custom 3D printed low contrast module consisting of 20 holes
with depths ranging from 1 to 8 mm and diameters from 1 to
10 mm was scanned. iRads of an anthropomorphic head phantom
were also obtained.Spatial resolution and low contrast
detection are systematically improved for cRads compared to
pRads. Image resolution was 3.7 lp/cm for cRads and 1.7
lp/cm for pRads in the center of the field of view. Spatial
resolution was found to vary with the object's location in
the field of view. While pRads could mostly resolve low
contrast holes of 10 mm in diameter, cRads could resolve
holes of up in 4 mm diameter. WET accuracy is similar for
both ion species, with a root mean squared error of
approximately 1 mm. WET accuracy was stable (maximum of 0.1
mm increase) across beam spacings, although important
under-sampling artifacts were observed for iRads
reconstructed using large beam spacings, especially for
cRads. iRads of the anthropomorphic head phantom showed
improved apparent contrast using cRads, especially to
identify bony structures.This work is the first
investigation of image quality metrics such as spatial
resolution and low contrast detectability for integrated
mode cRads, with a full comparison with pRads. Enhanced
image quality is obtained with cRads compared to pRads,
although pRads still maintain high WET accuracy and deliver
image quality within acceptable bounds.},
keywords = {Phantoms, Imaging / Carbon / Protons / Heavy Ion
Radiotherapy / Radiotherapy, Image-Guided: methods /
image‐guided radiotherapy (Other) / integrated mode
(Other) / ion beam therapy (Other) / ion imaging (Other) /
ion radiography (Other) / Carbon (NLM Chemicals) / Protons
(NLM Chemicals)},
cin = {BIO},
ddc = {610},
cid = {I:(DE-Ds200)BIO-20160831OR354},
pnm = {633 - Life Sciences – Building Blocks of Life: Structure
and Function (POF4-633) / HITRIplus - Heavy Ion Therapy
Research Integration plus (101008548)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-633 / G:(EU-Grant)101008548},
experiment = {$EXP:(DE-Ds200)External_experiment-20200803$},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
doi = {10.1002/mp.17645},
url = {https://repository.gsi.de/record/362971},
}