METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REAL TIME DOSIMETRY

摘要

The present invention provides a method of determining the dose rate of a radiation source such as a seed/s used in bachytherapy, comprising three or more needles (12) in the vicinity of the seed/s piercing the skin of the patient in a pattern from an externally placed template around the area to b e implanted with the seed/s, each needle having a series of detectors inside their length for providing an output indicative of the amount of radiation received from the seed/s and transmitting their signal optically (14) to a data collection unit (16). The determination of the location of the seed/s from the detector outputs is made by a dose planning and control computer (18), which requires as many of said detector outputs as possible to provide an acceptably accurate result are used in determining the spatial location o f the seed. The dose of radiation received by the area requiring treatment fro m seed/s is determined by the computer (18) from determined location of the seed/s and either the known strength of the seed/s or by the signal strength detected by the detectors from the seed/s.