全脑全脊髓照射技术的改进

目的:介绍全脑全脊髓放射治疗的一种新技术。方法:患者采用仰卧位,在整体定位板上做颈肩和体膜固定,行CT扫描定位,将图像传输治疗计划系统,进行三维重建。按照全脑全脊髓照射的要求勾画靶区,设计治疗计划,调整剂量分布。治疗前行CBCT扫描,进行在线的体位验证。结果:通过计划系统进行剂量计算,可以直观显示靶区的剂量分布并加以调整,计划照射野衔接处没有明显的剂量冷点和热点出现体位验证结果符合临床要求;通过CBCT在线验证,保证位置准确。结论:全脑全脊髓放射治疗采用了仰卧位热塑膜固定,较传统的俯卧位使患者更舒适,治疗过程中体位容易保持,确保治疗的准确;CT模拟定位方法,较传统的模拟机定位简单易行,且定位精确;用计划系统计算剂量分布并进行调整,使靶区剂量分布均匀,避免照射野衔接处剂量分布出现冷、热点。     

全脑全脊髓转床半野照射技术的临床应用

目的：介绍一种通过转床、半野进行全脑全脊髓照射的技术。方法：模拟定位时首先设颈胸脊髓野：机架角O°,小机头0°,床角0°,SSD=100cm,野长40cm,野宽4cm～5cm,同时在体膜上标记射野上界（B点）和下界（C点）,然后设全脑野：使用半束左右两野对穿照射,机架角90°或270°,小机头11.3°或348．7°,床角0°,SAD=100cm,Y1=0,X和Y2取包括颅骨外1cm,使射野X方向中心线在透视下与B点重合,最后设腰骶脊髓野：以C点为中心使用半束照射,机架角11.3°,小机头O°,床角90°,SSD=100cm,X2=0,Y和X1取包括腰骶直至S4。同时使用Kodak-Ec-film胶片、固体水模体以及MatriXX系统在加速器治疗机上模拟射野进行射野衔接点的几何和剂量验证,并观察12例使用该技术投照期间患者的放疗反应。结果：颈胸段脊髓野与全脑野衔接点以及颈胸段脊髓野与下位脊髓野衔接点处射野边界清晰锐利,未见射野间分离和重合现象,等剂量线基本平滑,未见明显的凹陷和凸出现象,12例患者都完成全脑全脊髓的照射计划,未见明显严重的放疗反应。结论：全脑全脊髓转床半野照射技术做到了射野间的无缝衔接,方法简便,值得临床推广应用。     

一种全颅全脊髓适形照射野的布野方案

目的:探讨一种简便易行、剂量准确性高的全颅全脊髓的适形照射的布野方案。方法:100多例髓母细胞瘤患者,俯卧位躺在特制的头颅固定器和真空负压袋上,进行CT模拟定位,在头颅放置3个标记点作为全颅野照射中心,进床30 cm左右作为全脊髓野的照射中心,通过多次改变全颅野的下界和脊髓野的上界来保证照射野内的剂量准确性。结果:经过上述方法设计的治疗方案,使得全颅全脊髓的放射治疗剂量分布精确,操作方便并且定位时间不长,临床疗效好。治疗时不在一个点上接野,确保脊髓的剂量无冷热点。结论:适形移动的全颅全脊髓的治疗技术操作方便,定位时间短,剂量分布准确,临床疗效好,副作用小,值得推广。     

仰卧与俯卧设计放疗方案在食管癌治疗中选择研究

目的 探讨食管癌等中心放射治疗时俯卧位设计放射治疗方案与常规仰卧位照射时食管位置的变化及其临床应用价值。方法 按入科顺序取40例食管癌患者纳入研究，采用自身对照的方法，同一患者在俯卧与仰卧两种体位上行CT扫描，分别测量第6颈椎、胸骨切迹、气管分又、左心房、左心室、膈顶和贲门7个平面处食管前缘到脊髓前缘的垂直距离及水平距离，统计两种体位上平均距离的差异。并且在CT定位下对两种体位的病变进行GTV、CTV、PTV和危及器官的勾画和设计三野等中心照射，观察射野的难易程度。结果 患者均可顺利完成两种体位的摆位、CT扫描及各种勾画和照射设计，体位舒适程度上感觉基本无差异。俯卧位时食管由上向下逐渐向前和向中线平面移动，在左心房平面前后方向上差距最大，后又逐渐缩小；左右方向上食管全段向中线处移动。位于食管中、下段的较大范围肿瘤，俯卧位较仰卧位三野等中心照射避开脊髓好。结论 俯卧位食管向前向中线移位，在食管中段俯卧位较仰卧位更远离脊髓。中下段食管癌俯卧位设计放疗方案优于仰卧位。     

全脑照射野下界三种模式对比

目的筛选合理的全脑照射野模式。方法对比研究临床上使用的直线型、二梯型和三梯型三种全脑照射野剂量分布特点。结果三种全脑照射野模式在后颅凹的剂量分布无明显差异，剂量分布曲线均显示前颅凹底部有低剂量区，以直线型照射野的剂量分布略好，但其在中颅凹底前部和前颅凹底部剂量偏低。结论应该尽量采用CT模拟定位，在影像三维重建的基础上利用三维治疗计划系统，以获得合理的照射野设计。在常规模拟定位时，应充分考虑照射野下界要包含前床突、蝶骨翼部分，避免中颅凹前部和前颅凹底部剂量偏低造成漏照，同时应对患者的眼球予以屏蔽，应包括眶上壁。用MLC塑型予以个体化的照射野下界，不失为简便、经济的定位方法。     

逆向计划调强放射治疗的临床验证

目的:探讨逆向计划调强放射治疗IMRT临床治疗前的验证方法。方法:用胶片法验证Cadplan(包括Helios逆向计划系统)三维治疗计划系统生成的各个照射野注量图与在Varian23EX直线加速器(安装120叶MLC)照射中实际释放的注量图的一致性;用电离室法验证等中心绝对剂量计算值与实测值的符合性。结果:等中心绝对剂量的误差小于5%,符合临床要求;各射束轴垂直方向测得的注量图与计划系统计算的注量图一致;等中心位置验证显示,CT模拟的正侧位DRR片与加速器正侧位验证片误差在±2 mm以内。结论:Varian逆向调强放射治疗系统符合临床要求。     

诊断用螺旋CT在适形放疗模拟定位中的应用分析

目的:分析诊断用螺旋CT用于放疗模拟定位时各种因素对放疗精度的影响,探索降低系统误差、提高放疗几何精确度的方法和措施.方法:在放疗模拟定位过程中,使用诊断用螺旋CT对70例肿瘤患者进行扫描,制定三维治疗计划得到患者正、侧位DDR射野方向照片,在X线模拟定位机下进行对比验证.结果:头颈部肿瘤靶中心点偏差小于3mm,胸部肿...     

通过多种技术方法的综合使用优化全脑全脊髓照射技术

全脑全脊髓照射是针对多种癌症的治疗流程中一个重要的组成部分。为了达到最佳的肿瘤控制,需要在靶区体积的确定、重要正常组织的保护、剂量均匀度、射野交接区域以及剂量测定方面都特别注意。本文提出了一种适用于大多数治疗情况的优化了的全脑全脊髓照射治疗技术,以一名因生殖细胞瘤需接受全脑全脊髓照射治疗的17岁男性患者为例,通过综合使用半野衔接技术、扩展半影的射野衔接技术和多叶光拦子野技术,制定临床可实行的治疗计划,大大改善了脊髓靶区内的剂量均匀度,将剂量最大点由处方剂量的124%降低到处方剂量的108%。对仿真人体模进行的实际测量值与计算值的比较表明,测量值和计算值是基本一致的。     

固定治疗床值摆位技术在胸腹部肿瘤IMRT中的应用

目的：探讨采用固定治疗床值摆位技术降低胸腹部肿瘤调强放射治疗摆位误差的方法。方法：应用瓦里安Trilogy直线加速器治疗胸腹部肿瘤患者30例，每位患者在首次治疗前均行CBCT扫描，并与计划系统的定位CT图像进行匹配，获取首次摆位后、摆位误差纠正后X（左右）、Y（头足）、Z（腹背）三个方向上的治疗床值，该数值为旋转容积调强照射提供了移床的精确数据。对所有患者第10次治疗前再行CBCT，与定位CT图像匹配，计算并分析第10次的摆位误差。结果：30例患者在X轴、Y轴、Z轴方向的平均摆位误差分别为（2．36±1．25）mm、（3．03±1．47）mm、（2．47±0．97）mm。结论：应用固定床值摆位技术明显降低了X和Z方向的误差。同时，摆位时以治疗床值的作为参考，简化了摆位过程，增加了患者的舒适度。     

一种用于全身照射技术的全身模拟定位CT扫描与图像重建方法

目的：探索一种适用于全身照射（TBI）的CT重建方法,可同体位连续扫描后获得一套完整的全身模拟定位CT。方法：使用TBI CT重建方法对患者进行CT模拟定位,完成后于Eclipse v15.5计划系统中生成一套全身模拟定位CT,将其运用到TBI计划设计与评估。在应用过程中,基于Python系统开发出相应的图像重建软件,与手动图像重建结果进行对比。结果：该全身模拟定位扫描方案可在Eclipse v15.5中实现两套CT的重建。在工作效率上,手工重建方法生成全身模拟定位CT平均需要10 min,软件重建方法只需要5 s。两种CT重建方法在图像质量上无差异,重建CT与真实值相比误差小于1 mm。使用重建的全身模拟定位进行TBI计划设计与评估,靶区适形度指数（CI）=0.854,剂量均匀性指数（HI）=0.199。结论：本文介绍的TBI全身模拟定位CT扫描与图像重建的方法可以简单、快速地获得完整的全身模拟定位CT图像,适用于后期的TBI计划设计、优化和评估过程。     

基于傅里叶梅林变换的图像配准方法

目的:提出一种新的配准框架用于图像引导放射治疗系统中的2D/3D图像配准,有效降低传统方法迭代搜索时间,同时保证放射治疗要求的配准精度。方法:利用傅里叶梅林变换方法对正侧位kV图像与对应方位参考CT图像生成的数字重建放射影像（DRR）进行粗配准,根据傅里叶梅林变换计算得到的二维平移向量以及放射治疗系统的机械几何参数反推出参考CT图像的三维空间位置偏差,更新正侧位的DRR图像,最后通过正侧位kV图像与DRR图像的相似度进行精配准达到临床需求。结果:采用临床金标准数据验证方法的配准性能,实验结果表明,配准误差为0.576 5 mm,平均运行时间为3.34 s。结论:该方法鲁棒性强,对图像的噪声不敏感,人工干预少,可满足临床应用的需求。     

体部肿瘤精确放疗摆位误差分析

目的:确定体部肿瘤精确放疗时的摆位误差。方法:使用电子射野影像系统EPID对28例体部肿瘤病人精确放疗时所拍摄的378幅射野图像与计划系统生成的数字重建放射片DRR进行比较,并对病人摆位的左右(x)和前后(y)及头脚(z)方向误差进行测量。结果:各方向摆位误差的分布均近似正态分布。胸部的摆位偏差主要发生在y、z方向,腹部和盆腔部的摆位偏差主要发生在x、z方向。结论:体位的随机误差大于系统误差,摆位所带来的偏差主要来源于随机误差。     

Registration of DRRs and portal images for verification of stereotactic body radiotherapy: a feasibility study in lung cancer treatment

Image guidance has become a pre-requisite for hypofractionated radiotherapy where the applied dose per fraction is increased. Particularly in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for lung tumours, one has to account for set-up errors and intrafraction tumour motion. In our feasibility study, we compared digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) of lung lesions with MV portal images (PIs) to obtain the displacement of the tumour before irradiation. The verification of the tumour position was performed by rigid intensity based registration and three different merit functions such as the sum of squared pixel intensity differences, normalized cross correlation and normalized mutual information. The registration process then provided a translation vector that defines the displacement of the target in order to align the tumour with the isocentre. To evaluate the registration algorithms, 163 test images were created and subsequently, a lung phantom containing an 8 cm(3) tumour was built. In a further step, the registration process was applied on patient data, containing 38 tumours in 113 fractions. To potentially improve registration outcome, two filter types (histogram equalization and display equalization) were applied and their impact on the registration process was evaluated. Generated test images showed an increase in successful registrations when applying a histogram equalization filter whereas the lung phantom study proved the accuracy of the selected algorithms, i.e. deviations of the calculated translation vector for all test algorithms were below 1 mm. For clinical patient data, successful registrations occurred in about 59% of anterior-posterior (AP) and 46% of lateral projections, respectively. When patients with a clinical target volume smaller than 10 cm(3) were excluded, successful registrations go up to 90% in AP and 50% in lateral projection. In addition, a reliable identification of the tumour position was found to be difficult for clinical target volumes at the periphery of the lung, close to backbone or diaphragm. Moreover, tumour movement during shallow breathing strongly influences image acquisition for patient positioning. Recapitulating, 2D/3D image registration for lung tumours is an attractive alternative compared to conventional CT verification of the tumour position. Nevertheless, size and location of the tumour are limiting parameters for an accurate registration process.     

Automated 2D-3D registration of portal images and CT data using line-segment enhancement

In prostate radiotherapy, setup errors with respect to the patient's bony anatomy can be reduced by aligning 2D megavoltage (MV) portal images acquired during treatment to a reference 3D kilovoltage (kV) CT acquired for treatment planning purposes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a fully automated 2D-3D registration algorithm to quantify setup errors in 3D through the alignment of line-enhanced portal images and digitally reconstructed radiographs computed from the CT. The line-enhanced images were obtained by correlating the images with a filter bank of short line segments, or "sticks" at different orientations. The proposed methods were validated on (1) accurately collected gold-standard data consisting of a 3D kV cone-beam CT scan of an anthropomorphic phantom of the pelvis and 2D MV portal images in the anterior-posterior (AP) view acquired at 15 different poses and (2) a conventional 3D kV CT scan and weekly 2D MV AP portal images of a patient over 8 weeks. The mean (and standard deviation) of the absolute registration error for rotations around the right-lateral (RL), inferior-superior (IS), and posterior-anterior (PA) axes were 0.212 degree (0.214 degree), 0.055 degree (0.033 degree) and 0.041 degree (0.039 degree), respectively. The corresponding registration errors for translations along the RL, IS, and PA axes were 0.161 (0.131) mm, 0.096 (0.033) mm, and 0.612 (0.485) mm. The mean (and standard deviation) of the total registration error was 0.778 (0.543) mm. Registration on the patient images was successful in all eight cases as determined visually. The results indicate that it is feasible to automatically enhance features in MV portal images of the pelvis for use within a completely automated 2D-3D registration framework for the accurate determination of patient setup errors. They also indicate that it is feasible to estimate all six transformation parameters from a 3D CT of the pelvis and a single portal image in the AP view.     

头颈部肿瘤射野摆位误差的差异性研究

目的：研究采用电子射野系统评价头颈部肿瘤患者摆位误差时的观察者间变异和观察者自身变异。方法：两队研究小组，分别由四名医师和四名技师组成，两组分别对6名头颈部肿瘤的患者，采用电子射野影像仪（electronic portal imaging device，EPID）拍摄验证片（electronic portal images，EPIs），在EPIs上勾画骨性标志，以放疗计划生成的数字重建图像（digitally reconstructed radiographs，DRRs）做为参考图像，定量分析不同观察研究人员之间和研究人员自身采用EPID确定头颈部肿瘤患者的射野摆位误差（field placement errors，FPEs）的差异性。结果：在前／后位射野图像上．不同医师之间、医师自身及技师自身对摆位误差的判断无明显差异，但在技师之间出现了明显的自身差异性．医师组和技师组在前／后射野图像上的均方根（root-mean—square，RMS）分别为2．52±0．46和3．43±0．43，两者具有明显差异；在侧位野图像上，医师自身对摆位误差的判断有较好的稳定性，但部分不同医师之间在腹背、头足方向上部分患者中出现差异，而不同的技师之间存在明显差异性，医师组和技师组在侧位射野图像上的RMS分别为2．72±0．16和2．62±0．22．两者无明显差异。结论：医师和技师组在采用电子射野系统对头颈部摆位误差进行判断时存在人员之间的误差，应对所有人员进行统一训练才能减少射野摆位误差，从而提高IMRT治疗效果。     

A frequency-based approach to locate common structure for 2D-3D intensity-based registration of setup images in prostate radiotherapy

In many radiotherapy clinics, geometric uncertainties in the delivery of 3D conformal radiation therapy and intensity modulated radiation therapy of the prostate are reduced by aligning the patient's bony anatomy in the planning 3D CT to corresponding bony anatomy in 2D portal images acquired before every treatment fraction. In this paper, we seek to determine if there is a frequency band within the portal images and the digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) of the planning CT in which bony anatomy predominates over non-bony anatomy such that portal images and DRRs can be suitably filtered to achieve high registration accuracy in an automated 2D-3D single portal intensity-based registration framework. Two similarity measures, mutual information and the Pearson correlation coefficient were tested on carefully collected gold-standard data consisting of a kilovoltage cone-beam CT (CBCT) and megavoltage portal images in the anterior-posterior (AP) view of an anthropomorphic phantom acquired under clinical conditions at known poses, and on patient data. It was found that filtering the portal images and DRRs during the registration considerably improved registration performance. Without filtering, the registration did not always converge while with filtering it always converged to an accurate solution. For the pose-determination experiments conducted on the anthropomorphic phantom with the correlation coefficient, the mean (and standard deviation) of the absolute errors in recovering each of the six transformation parameters were Theta(x):0.18(0.19) degrees, Theta(y):0.04(0.04) degrees, Theta(z):0.04(0.02) degrees, t(x):0.14(0.15) mm, t(y):0.09(0.05) mm, and t(z):0.49(0.40) mm. The mutual information-based registration with filtered images also resulted in similarly small errors. For the patient data, visual inspection of the superimposed registered images showed that they were correctly aligned in all instances. The results presented in this paper suggest that robust and accurate registration can be achieved with intensity-based methods by focusing on rigid bony structures in the images while diminishing the influence of artifacts with similar frequencies as soft tissue.     

Registration of electronic portal images for patient set-up verification

Images acquired from an electronic portal imaging device are aligned with digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) or other portal images to verify patient positioning during radiation therapy. Most of the currently available computer aided registration methods are based on the manual placement of corresponding landmarks. The purpose of the paper is twofold: (a) the establishment of a methodology for patient set-up verification during radiotherapy based on the registration of electronic portal images, and (b) the evaluation of the proposed methodology in a clinical environment. The estimation of set-up errors, using the proposed methodology, can be accomplished by matching the portal image of the current fraction of the treatment with the portal image of the baseline treatment (reference portal image) using a nearly automated technique. The proposed registration method is tested on a number of phantom data as well as on data from four patients. The phantom data included portal images that corresponded to various positions of the phantom on the treatment couch. For each patient, a set of 30 portal images was used. For the phantom data (for both transverse and lateral portal images), the maximum absolute deviations of the translational shifts were within 1.5 mm, whereas the in-plane rotation angle error was less than 0.5 degrees. The two-way Anova revealed no statistical significant variability both within observer and between-observer measurements (P > 0.05). For the patient data, the mean values obtained with manual and the proposed registration methods were within 0.5 mm. In conclusion, the proposed registration method has been incorporated within a system, called ESTERR-PRO. Its image registration capability achieves high accuracy and both intra- and inter-user reproducibility. The system is fully operational within the Radiotherapy Department of 'HYGEIA' Hospital in Athens and it could be easily installed in any other clinical environment since it requires standardized hardware specifications and minimal human intervention.     

A technique for respiratory-gated radiotherapy treatment verification with an EPID in cine mode

Respiratory gating based on external surrogates is performed in many clinics. We have developed a new technique for treatment verification using an electronic portal imaging device (EPID) in cine mode for gated 3D conformal therapy. Implanted radiopaque fiducial markers inside or near the target are required for this technique. The markers are contoured on the planning CT set, enabling us to create digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) for each treatment beam. During the treatment, a sequence of EPID images can be acquired without disrupting the treatment. Implanted markers are visualized in the images and their positions in the beam's eye view are calculated off-line and compared to the reference position by matching the field apertures in corresponding EPID and DRR images. The precision of the patient set-up, the placement of the beam-gating window, as well as the residual tumour motion can be assessed for each treatment fraction. This technique has been demonstrated with a case study patient, who had three markers implanted in his liver. For this patient, the intra-fractional variation of all marker positions in the gating window had a 95% range of 4.8 mm in the SI direction (the primary axis of motion). This was about the same (5 mm) as the residual motion considered in the planning process. The inter-fractional variation of the daily mean positions of the markers, which indicates the uncertainty in the set-up procedure, was within +8.3 mm/-4.5 mm (95% range) in the SI direction for this case.     

Validation of three-dimensional model-based tibio-femoral tracking during running

The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of a radiographic model-based tracking technique that measures the three-dimensional in vivo motion of the tibio-femoral joint during running. Tantalum beads were implanted into the femur and tibia of three subjects and computed tomography (CT) scans were acquired after bead implantation. The subjects ran 2.5m/s on a treadmill positioned within a biplane radiographic system while images were acquired at 250 frames per second. Three-dimensional implanted bead locations were determined and used as a "gold standard" to measure the accuracy of the model-based tracking. The model-based tracking technique optimized the correlation between the radiographs acquired via the biplane X-ray system and digitally reconstructed radiographs created from the volume-rendered CT model. Accuracy was defined in terms of measurement system bias, precision and root-mean-squared (rms) error. Results were reported in terms of individual bone tracking and in terms of clinically relevant tibio-femoral joint translations and rotations (joint kinematics). Accuracy for joint kinematics was as follows: model-based tracking measured static joint orientation with a precision of 0.2 degrees or better, and static joint position with a precision of 0.2mm or better. Model-based tracking precision for dynamic joint rotation was 0.9+/-0.3 degrees , 0.6+/-0.3 degrees , and 0.3+/-0.1 degrees for flexion-extension, external-internal rotation, and ab-adduction, respectively. Model-based tracking precision when measuring dynamic joint translation was 0.3+/-0.1mm, 0.4+/-0.2mm, and 0.7+/-0.2mm in the medial-lateral, proximal-distal, and anterior-posterior direction, respectively. The combination of high-speed biplane radiography and volumetric model-based tracking achieves excellent accuracy during in vivo, dynamic knee motion without the necessity for invasive bead implantation.     

A computationally efficient method for automatic registration of orthogonal x-ray images with volumetric CT data

The paper presents a computationally efficient 3D-2D image registration algorithm for automatic pre-treatment validation in radiotherapy. The novel aspects of the algorithm include (a) a hybrid cost function based on partial digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) generated along projected anatomical contours and a level set term for similarity measurement; and (b) a fast search method based on parabola fitting and sensitivity-based search order. Using CT and orthogonal x-ray images from a skull and a pelvis phantom, the proposed algorithm is compared with the conventional ray-casting full DRR based registration method. Not only is the algorithm shown to be computationally more efficient with registration time being reduced by a factor of 8, but also the algorithm is shown to offer 50% higher capture range allowing the initial patient displacement up to 15 mm (measured by mean target registration error). For the simulated data, high registration accuracy with average errors of 0.53 mm +/- 0.12 mm for translation and 0.61 +/- 0.29 degrees for rotation within the capture range has been achieved. For the tested phantom data, the algorithm has also shown to be robust without being affected by artificial markers in the image.