Quality assurance for computed-tomography simulators and the computed-tomography-simulation process: Report of the AAPM Radiation Therapy Committee Task Group No. 66 (original) (raw)
The purpose of this document is to provide the medical physicist with a framework and guidance for establishment of a comprehensive quality assurance ͑QA͒ program for computed-tomography-͑CT͒ scanners used for CTsimulation, CT-simulation software, and the CT-simulation process. The CT-simulator is a CT scanner equipped with a flat tabletop and, preferably, external patient positioning lasers. The scanner is accompanied with specialized software which allows treatment planning on volumetric patient CT scans in a manner consistent with conventional radiation therapy simulators. 1-12 The CT scanner used in the CTsimulation process can be located in the radiation oncology department or in the diagnostic radiology department. Depending on the CT-scanner location and primary use, acceptance testing, commissioning, and QA can be the responsibility of a therapy medical physicist, diagnostic physicist, or a joint responsibility of diagnostic and therapy physicists. The commissioning and periodic QA of the accompanying software and the QA of the CT-simulation process is always the responsibility of the therapy physicist. This report does not address each of the two scenarios individually ͑scanner located in diagnostic radiology or radiation oncology͒, but rather establishes a set of QA procedures that are applicable to scanners used for CT-simulation regardless of their location and primary purpose. It is the responsibility of the respective diagnostic and therapy physicists to determine how the QA program is implemented and how the responsibilities are assigned. The primary responsibility for implementation of recommendations for QA of scanners used for CTsimulation in this document rests with the radiation oncology Quality Assurance Committee ͑QAC͒ as specified by the AAPM Task Group 40. 13 Further discussion of QA program responsibilities is provided in Appendix A. If the scanner is located in the radiation oncology department, a therapy medical physicist can perform QA of the CT-scanner and of the simulation process independently. It is recommended that the therapy physicist solicit help from a diagnostic physicist for the establishment of a QA program and scanner commissioning if he or she has limited CT experience. Likewise, if the CT-scanner is located in the diagnostic radiology department, the primary responsibility for the scanner QA rests with the diagnostic physicist. It is then the responsibility of the radiation oncology physicist to assure that the recommendations of this task group are implemented by either diagnostic radiology or the radiation oncology physicist or a designate.
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