Implementation of a parallel-beam optical-CT apparatus for three-dimensional radiation dosimetry using a high-resolution CCD camera

In this study, a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with 2-megapixel (1920×1080-pixel) and 12-bit resolution was developed for optical computed tomography(optical CT). The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of our system was 30.12 dB, better than that of commercially available CCD cameras (25.31 dB). The 50% modulation transfer function (MTF50) of our 1920×1080-pixel camera gave a line width per picture height (LW/PH) of 745, which is 73% of the diffraction-limited resolution. Compared with a commercially available 1-megapixel CCD camera (1296×966-pixel) with a LW/PH=358 and 46.6% of the diffraction-limited resolution, our camera system provided higher spatial resolution and better image quality. The NIPAM gel dosimeter was used to evaluate the optical CT with a 2-megapixel CCD. A clinical five-field irradiation treatment plan was generated using the Eclipse planning system (Varian Corp., Palo Alto, CA, USA). The gel phantom was irradiated using a 6-MV Varian Clinac IX linear accelerator (Varian). The measured NIPAM gel dose distributions and the calculated dose distributions, generated by the treatment planning software (TPS), were compared using the 3% dose-difference and 3 mm distance-to-agreement criteria. The gamma pass rate was as high as 98.2% when 2-megapixel CCD camera was used in optical CT. However, the gamma pass rate was only 96.0% when a commercially available 1-megapixel CCD camera was used. - Highlights: • An optical CT system with a 2-megapixel CCD showed high uniformity of reconstructed images of the gel phantom. • The gamma pass rate was as high as 98.2% with the 3% dose difference and 3 mm dose to agreement criteria. • Our CCD with 12-bit information could guarantee better SNR performance, of 30.12 dB. • Our 2-megapixel CCD camera gave a LW/PH of 745, 73% of the diffraction-limited resolution