Prog Med Phys.  2017 Mar;28(1):1-10. 10.14316/pmp.2017.28.1.1.

Development of an Advanced Deformable Phantom to Analyze Dose Differences due to Respiratory Motion

• Shin DS
• Kang SH
• Kim DS
• Kim TH
• Kim KH
• Koo HJ
• Cho MS
• Ha JS
• Yoon DK
• Suh TS

• KMID: 2382798
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14316/pmp.2017.28.1.1

Abstract

The difference between three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) dose could be affected by factors such as tumor size and motion. To quantitatively analyze the effects of these factors, a phantom that can independently control each factor is required. The purpose of this study is to develop a deformable lung phantom with the above attributes and evaluate the characteristics. A phantom was designed to simulate diaphragm motion with amplitude in the range 1~7 cm and period up to ≥2 s of regular breathing. To simulate different tumors sizes, custom molds were created using a 3D printer and filled with liquid silicone. The accuracy of the phantom diaphragm motion was assessed by comparing measured motion with predicted motion. Because the phantom diaphragm motion is not identical to the tumor motion, the correlation between the diaphragm and tumor motions was calculated by a curve fitting method to emulate user-intended tumor motion. Tumors of different sizes were located at same position, and tumor set-up positions were evaluated. The accuracy of phantom diaphragm motion was better than 1 mm. The diaphragm-tumor correlation showed that the tumor motion in the superior-inferior direction increased with increasing diaphragm motion. The tumor motion was larger in the 10 cm³ tumor than in the 90 cm³ tumor. The range of difference between the tumor set-up positions was 0 to 0.45 cm. This phantom showed independently adjusting factors such as tumor size and motion to facilitate quantitative analysis of the dosimetric impact of respiratory motion according to these factors.

Keyword

Deformable phantom; 4D dose; Respiratory motion; Tumor size; Tumor motion

MeSH Terms

Diaphragm
Fibrinogen
Fungi
Lung
Methods
Printing, Three-Dimensional
Respiration
Silicon
Silicones
Fibrinogen
Silicon
Silicones

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Developed deformable lung phantom comprising target, motion, and respiratory signal components. The blue arrows describe the phantom motions. (a) Photograph, (b) overall diagram in AutoCAD (Auto CAD 2016, Autodesk Inc, San Rafael, CA), and (c) enlarged image of the upper side of the acrylic circle plate.

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  Fig. 2. Tumor molds manufactured using a three-dimensional (3D) printer. Tumors of different sizes were produced using liquid silicone rubber and molds. (a) Photograph of tumors in the tumor molds that have 90 cm3 and 10 cm3 tumor sizes, respectively, and (b) diagram of the tumor mold set for a 3D printing.

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  Fig. 3. Detailed motion of the phantom in the target component. (a) End-inhalation phase, and (b) end-exhalation phase.

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  Fig. 4. Detailed two-dimensional diagram of the adjustable rotation axis crank. The horizontal line (red dotted line) is parallel with the bottom surface of the phantom. The joint hole is the connection point between the length adjustment driving rod and the adjustable rotation axis crank, and the angle is defined on the basis of the horizontal line and a line (white dashed line) from the crank center to the joint hole. The radius of rotation is the distance between the center of the crank to the joint hole. The red arrows describe the crank motion.

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  Fig. 5. The setup of the developed phantom equipped with the ANZAI belt to acquire four-dimensional computed tomography data.

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  Fig. 6. Example of a phantom four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) image of a 10 cm3 tumor. (a) Coronal views of the 4DCT image for setting the 2 cm motion amplitude case. (b~d) Difference between the 4DCT end-inhalation and end-exhalation phase image, (b) setting the 1 cm phantom diaphragm motion case, (c) setting the 2 cm phantom diaphragm motion case, and (d) setting the 3 cm phantom diaphragm motion case.

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  Fig. 7. Diaphragm-tumor correlation curves between the phantom diaphragm motion and tumor motion in the superior-inferior (SI) direction. The colored triangle symbols represent the tumor center-of-mass (COM) positions in the SI direction acquired from four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) data, and the colored lines are the fitting curves. On the basis of the tumor COM position from the 4DCT data, the curve fitting was performed using the cubic polynomial method.

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  Fig. 8. Four-dimensional computed tomography images for coronal view at the end-inhalation phase for one data set to identify the tumor positions. The red dotted lines describe the tumor surfaces, and the orange arrows represent the distance between the phantom diaphragm and tumor surface. (a) 90 cm3 tumor case, (b) 10 cm3 tumor case.

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  Fig. 9. Four-dimensional dose (4D dose) calculation process. Three-dimensional dose (3D dose) distributions are calculated at each phase on the basis of the same treatment planning that is planned on the reference phase (end-exhalation) image of four-dimensional computed tomography. Deformation vector fields (DVFs) between the reference and the other phase images are acquired using the deformable image registration. These DVFs applied the 3D dose distribution, which is dose warping, and the dose distributions deformed by the DVFs were summed with equal weighting.

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  Fig. 10. Example of dose distributions of 90 cm3 tumor (phantom motion amplitude of 1 cm) for coronal views. (a) Three-dimensional dose (3D dose) distribution, (b) four-dimensional dose (4D dose) distribution, and (c) distribution of difference between the 3D and 4D dose.

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