SU-E-T-265: Reducing Pacemaker Doses with a Lead Sheet: A Multi-Detector Study

Medical Physics
A BourgouinL Archambault

Abstract

Evaluate the usability of lead shielding to reduce the dose to pacemakers. The efficiency and risk of this type of skin block will be presented. A solid water phantom was used and all measurements were made at a depth of 0.5 cm for 6 MV and 23 MV photon beams. Measurements were performed with a parallel plate ion chamber and with a plastic scintillation detector (PSD) prototype. Measurements were made for fields of 10, 20 and 30 cm square. For every field, measurements were made in increment of 5 cm from the center of the field to the edge of the 60 cm long phantom for anterior and posterior beams. All measures have been made with and without a 1.6 mm of lead shielding wrapped in a thermoplastic. For all measurements, both detectors agree to 0.6%, well within the uncertainties of the detectors. With antero-posterior fields, the benefit of shielding is more important at 23MV (reduction of dose by65%) compared to 6MV (reduction of dose by 46%) when the shielding is out of the field. For distances larger than 35 cm, no benefits are measured. In the case were the lead is completely inside the fields, the dose is increased by the presence of shielding. The same observation is made for postero-anterior fields. For shielding out of fi...Continue Reading

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