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Growing Need For A Standardized Response To Radiopharmaceutical Extravasations, Michael Richard Drelich

All ETDs from UAB

Extravasations are medical occurrences where an injected or infused pharmaceutical is unintentionally deposited into the soft tissue near the injection site, rather than into the bloodstream. With radiopharmaceuticals, extravasations can result in potentially large radiation doses to skin and tissue. The current rate of extravasations in clinical settings is estimated to be between 3-23%. In the interest of patient safety, a clearer understanding of the dosimetry and differences in extravasation scenarios to simplify dose estimation is needed. Similarly, the NRC is considering modifying regulations to include extravasations as reportable medical events rather than to continue considering them as patient interventions. …

Investigation Of Buildup Dose For Therapeutic Intensity Modulated Photon Beams In Radiation Therapy, Khosrow Javedan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Buildup dose of Mega Voltage (MV) photon beams can be a limiting factor in intensitymodulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments. Excessive doses can cause patient discomfort and treatment interruptions, while underdosing may lead to local failure.

Many factors which contribute to buildup dose, including the photon beam energy spectrum, scattered or contaminant radiation and their angular distribution, are not modeled well in commercial treatment planning systems. The accurate Monte Carlo method was employed in the studies to estimate the doses.

Buildup dose of 6MV photon beams was investigated for three fundamentally different IMRT modalities: between Helical TomoTherapy and traditional opposed tangential …