MEDICAL PHYSICS
VOL. 26 , NO. 7 , JULY 1999



RADIAT ION TREATMENT PHYSICS

Point/Counterpoint
intensity-modulated conformal radiation therapy and S-dimensional treatment planning will significantly
reduce the need for therapeutic approaches with particles such as protons
Thomas Rockwell Mackie and Alfred R. Smith ............................................................ 1185

Dosimetric verification of two commercially available three-dimensional treatment planning systems
using the TG 23 test package
Chester R. Ramsey, Ivan L. Cordrey, Kelly M. Spencer, and Adrian L. Oliver. ................................ 1188

Correlated histogram representation of Monte Carlo derived medical accelerator photon-output phase
A. E. Schach von Wittenau, L. J. Cox, P. M. Bergstrom, Jr., W. P. Chandler, C. L. Hartmann Siantar, and
R. Mohan............................................................................................................................... 1196

A simple model for examining issues in radiotherapy optimization
David M. Shepard, Gustavo Olivera, Lisa Angelos, Otto Sauer, Paul Reckwerdt, and T. Rockwell Mackie. ....... 1212

Virtual light field projection for CT-simulation
Hsiao-Ming Lu and Lee Chin. ........................................................................... 1222

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance measurement of p-boronophenylalanine (BPA): A therapeutic
for boron neutron capture therapy
C. S. Zuo, P. V. Prasad, Paul Busse, L. Tang, and R. G. Zamenhof. ........................................ 1230


Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT): Implications of neutron beam and boron compound
characteristics
Floyd J. Wheeler, David W. Nigg, Jacek Capala, Peter R. D. Watkins, Corine Vroegindeweij, liro Auterinen, ^
Tiina Seppala, and Darren Bleuel ....................................................................... 1237

Dose enhancement by a thin foil of high-Z material: A Monte Carlo study
X. Allen Li, James C. H. Chu, Weimin Chen, and Thomas Zusag ........................................... 1245

Monte Carlo calculations and GafChromic film measurements for plugged collimator helmets of Leksell
Gamma Knife unit
Joel Y. C. Cheung, K. N. Yu, Robert T.K. Ho, and C. P. Yu... .......... ........ ...... ....... .............. 1252

Clinically shaped fields: Relative outputs for Varian multileaf collimators and tray-mounted cerrobend
blocks
Klaudia H. Meyer, Stanley E. Skubic, Leemon C. Baird, Ramasamy Virudachalam, and David R. Asche. ........ 1257

Dosimetric characteristics of acrylic and stainless steel cones for electron beam therapy
Yasumasa Kakinohana, Takafumi Toita, Kazuhiko Ogawa, Tsukasa Kinjyou, Syukou Maeshiro, and
Satoshi Sawada....................................................................................... 1260

Tomographic convolutional dosimetry of interstitial brachytherapy implants
Roger Ove............................................................................................ 1262


RADIOLOGICAL PHYSICS

X-ray spectra estimation using attenuation measurements from 25 kVp to 18 MV
Robert G. Waggener, Melissa M. Blough, James A. Terry, Di Chen, Nina E. Lee, Sean Zhang, and
William D. McDavid. ................................................................................... 1269


IMAGING PHYSICS

Noise power spectra of images from digital mammography detectors
Mark B. Williams, Peter A. Mangiafico, and Piero U. Simoni................................................ 1279

A wavelet-based algorithm for detecting clustered microcalcifications in digital mammograms
Maria J. Lado, Pablo G. Tahoces, Arturo J. Mendez, Miguel Souto, and Juan J. Vidal......................... 1294

Dependence of scatter on atomic number for x rays from tungsten and molybdenum anodes in the
mammographic energy range
R. J. Aus, L. A. DeWerd, D. W. Pearson, J. A. Micka, and K.H.Ng... ......... ......... ........ ...... ...... 1306

Self-normalizing method to measure the detective quantum efficiency of a wide range of x-ray detectors
Karl Stierstorfer and Martin Spahn. ...................................................................... 1312

Iterative image warping technique for temporal subtraction of sequential chest radiographs to detect
interval change
Takayuki Ishida, Shigehiko Katsuragawa, Katsumi Nakamura, Heber MacMahon, and Kunio Doi ............... 1320

Fractal analysis of radiographs: Assessment of trabecular bone structure and prediction of elastic
modulus and strength

Sharmila Majumdar, John Lin, Thomas Link, Jacob Millard, Peter Augat, Xiaolong Ouyang, David Newitt,
Robert Gould, Manish Kothari, and Harry Genant ......................................................... 1330

Measurement of thickness and density of thin structures by computed tomography: A simulation study
Geoffrey Dougherty and David Newman ................................................................. 1341

Comparison of low contrast detectability between a digital amorphous silicon and a screen-film based
imaging system for thoracic radiography
Richard Aufrichtig..................................................................................... 1349

Real-time equalization of region-of-interest fluoroscopic images using binary masks
Stephen Rudin, Daniel R. Bednarek, and Chang-Ying J. Yang.............................................. 1359

Estimation of the noisy component of anatomical backgrounds
Francois O. Bochud, Jean-Francois Valley, Francis R. Verdun, Christian Hessler, and Pierre Schnyder. ......... 1365

IVleasurement of x-ray attenuation coefficients of aqueous solutions of indocyanine green and glycated
chitosan
Fang Xu, Hong Uu, Xizeng Wu, Hangyi Jiang, Robert E. Nordquist, and Wei R. Chen. ........................ 1371


NUCLEAR MEDICINE PHYSICS

Modeling of scintillation camera systems
Tilahun Woldeselassie .........................................................................................1375

Effect of filtering on the detection and localization of small Ga-67 lesions in thoracic single photon
emission computed tomography images
R. Glenn Wells, Peter H. Simkin, Philip F. Judy, Michael A. King, P. Hendrik Pretorius, and Howard C. Gifford........... 1382

MABDOSE. I: Characterization of a general purpose dose estimation code
Timothy K. Johnson, David McClure, and Steven McCourt ................................................. 1389

MABDOSE. II: Validation of a general purpose dose estimation code
Timothy K. Johnson, David McClure, and Steven McCourt ................................................. 1396

Ph.D. THESES ABSTRACTS
Determination of the dose distribution of therapeutic electrons at interfaces
Patricia M. Ostwald............................................................................................ 1404

Studies on x-ray physical analysis and computer-aided diagnosis of x-ray CT images [in Japanese]
Masatoshi Tsuzaka.................................................................................................. 1405


Optimization of beam-orientations in conformal radiotherapy treatment planning
Carl Graham Rowbottom ............................................................................... 1406

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

Book Reviews

Volume and Kinetics in Tumor Control and Normal Tissue Complications, edited by B. R. Paliwal, J. F.
Fowler, D. E. Herbert, and M. P. Mehta
Lionel Cohen, Reviewer................................................................................ 1407

Ultrasound in Medicine, edited by F. A. Duck, A. C. Baker, and H. C. Starritt
Albert Goldstein, Reviewer ............................................................................. 1408

Books Received................................................................................. 1409

ANNOUNCEMENT............................................................................... 1410
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AAPM PUBLICATIONS. ................................................. 1412

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS ................................................................... 1414


FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CANADIAN ORGANIZATION OF MEDICAL PHYSICISTS
AND THE CANADIAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICISTS IN MEDICINE IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ASSOCIATION DES PHYSICIENS ET INGENIEURS BIOMEDICAUX DU QUEBEC. .................... 1417


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MEDICAL PHYSICS

VOL. 26, NO. 8, AUGUST 1999



RADIATION THERAPY PHYSICS
Point/Counterpoint

The rate of evolution of radiation therapy planning and delivery systems is exceeding the evolution
rate of quality assurance processes
Sheri D. Henderson and Peter J. Biggs .............................................................. 1439


Scatter fractions from linear accelerators with x-ray energies from 6 to 24 MV
Paula L. Taylor, James E. Rodgers, and Jileen Shobe..................................................... 1442


Photon output factor calculation from the inverse of the sector-integration equation
Dario E. Sanz, Antinogenes L. Romaguera, and Norma B. Acosta .......................................... 1447


Photon dose calculation based on electron multiple-scattering theory: Primary dose deposition kernels
Lu Wang and David Jette .............................................................................. 1454


Past Monte Carlo dose calculation for photon beams based on the VMC electron algorithm
Matthias Fippel........................................................................................ 1466


Validation of Monte Carlo generated phase-space descriptions of medical linear accelerators
B. Libby, J. Siebers, and R. Mohan...................................................................... 1476


Monte Carlo calculations of dose distributions around (32) P and (198)Au stents for intravascular
brachytherapy
N. Reynaert, F. Verhaegen, Y. Taeymans, M. Van Eijkeren, and H. Thierens. ................................ 1484


Determination of the tissue attenuation factor along two major axes of a high dose rate (HDR) (192)lr
source
Sang Hyun Cho, Renate Muller-Runkel, and William F. Hanson. ............................................ 1492




A Monte Carlo investigation of the dosimetric characteristics of the VariSource (192)lr high dose rate
brachytherapy source
P. Karaiskos, A. Angelopoulos, P. Baras, L. Sakelliou, P. Sandilos, K. Dardoufas, and L. Vlachos .............. 1498


Dosimetry for (252)Cf neutron emitting brachytherapy sources: Protocol, measurements, and calculations
Mark J. Rivard ........................................................................................ 1503


Towards two-dimensional brachytherapy dosimetry using plastic scintillator: New highly efficient water
equivalent plastic scintillator materials
A. S. Kirov, C. Huribut, J. F. Dempsey, S. B. Shrinivas, J. W. Epstein, W. R. Binns, P. F. Dowkontt,
and J. F. Williamson ................................................................................... 1515


Verification of compensator thicknesses using a fluoroscopic electronic portal imaging device
Kasper L. Pasma, Marco Kroonwijk, Erik B. van Dieren, Andries G. Visser, and Ben J. M. Heijmen ............. 1524


Relative dosimetry using active matrix flat-panel imager (AMFPI) technology
Y. EI-Mohri, L. E. Antonuk, J. Yorkston, K.-W. Jee, M. Maolinbay, K. L. Lam, and J. H. Siewerdsen. ............ 1530


Evaluation of polymer gels and MRI as a 3-D dosimeter for intensity-modulated radiation therapy
Daniel A. Low, James F. Dempsey, Ramesh Venkatesan, Sasa Mutic, Jerry Markman, E. Mark Haacke,
and James A. Purdy................................................................................... 1542


Design and construction of a light-delivery system for photodynamic therapy
David A. Bellnier, Leroy M. Wood, William R. Potter, Kenneth R. Weishaupt, and Allan R. Oseroff.............. 1552


MAGNETIC RESONANCE PHYSICS

Comparison of matched BOLD and PAIR 4.0T-fMRI with [(15)O]water PET brain volumes
M. R. Zaini, S. C. Strother, J. R. Anderson, J.-S. Liow, U. Kjems, C. Tegeler, and S.-G. Kirn................... 1559


Registration and warping of magnetic resonance images to histological sections
Michael A. Jacobs, Joe P. Windham, Hamid Soltanian-Zadeh, Donald J. Peck, and Robert A. Knight ........... 1568


NUCLEAR MEDICINE PHYSICS

Quantitative pulmonary single photon emission computed tomography for radiotherapy applications
Christopher Scarfone, Ronald J. Jaszczak, David R. Gilland, Kim L. Greer, Michael T. Munley, Lawrence B. Marks,
and R. Edward Coleman ............................................................................... 1579


IMAGING PHYSICS

A three-dimensional cerebrovascular flow phantom
R. Fahrig, H. Nikolov, A. J. Fox, and D. W. Holdsworth .................................................... 1589


A computer simulation of wavelet noise reduction in computed tomography
Michael D. Harpen. .................................................................................... 1600


Medical image compression based on a morphological representation of wavelet coefficients
Niall C. Phelan and Joseph T. Ennis. .................................................................... 1607


Experimental comparison of noise and resolution for 2k and 4k storage phosphor radiography systems
Michael J. Flynn and Ehsan Sarnei ...................................................................... 1612


A ghost story: Spatio-temporal response characteristics of an indirect-detection flat-panel imager
J. H. Siewerdsen and D. A. Jaffray ...................................................................... 1624


Combined adaptive enhancement and region-growing segmentation of breast masses on digitized
mammograms
Nicholas Petrick, Heang-Ping Chan, Berkman Sahiner, and Mark A. Helvie .................................. 1642


Design and evaluation of an external filter technique for exposure equalization in mammography
Shyam P. Keshavmurthy, Mitchell M. Goodsitt, Heang-Ping Chan, Mark A. Helvie,
and Emmanuel Christodoulou. .......................................................................... 1655


Markov random field modeling in posteroanterior chest radiograph segmentation
NealF. Vittitoe, Rene Vargas-Voracek, and Carey E. Floyd, Jr... ............. .................. ............ 1670


Automatic extraction of corresponding points for the registration of medical images
Bostjan Ukar and Franjo Pernus ........................................................................ 1678


Generation and use of photon energy deposition kernels for diagnostic quality x rays
Parham Alaei, Bruce J. Gerbi, and Richard A. Geise ...................................................... 1687


Iterative reconstruction scheme for optical tomography based on the equation of radiative transfer
Alexander D. Klose and Andreas H. Hielscher ............................................................ 1698


A multiple detector array helical x-ray microtomography system for specimen imaging
Neva M. Corrigan, Andres E. Chavez, Erik R. Wisner, and John M. Boone................................... 1708

RADIATION PROTECTION

Fetal dose assessment from invasive special procedures by Monte Carlo methods
Robert L Metzger and Kenneth A. Van Riper. ............................................................ 1714


RADIATION MEASUREMENT PHYSICS

Quantitative optical densitometry with scanning-laser film digitizers
James F. Dempsey, Daniel A. Low, Assen S. Kirov, and Jeffrey F. Williamson. ............................... 1721


Establishing a quality control program for an automated dosimetry system
Shuling Li, Thomas J. O'Dea, and Richard A. Geise....................................................... 1732


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Comment on "Reimbursement for high dose rate brachytherapy should be based on the number of
dwell positions of the source during treatment" [Med. Phys. 26, 347-349 (1999)]
James R. Marbach .................................................................................... 1738


Does the megavoltage beam get harder or softer with depth?
Moshi Geso and Trevor Ackerly......................................................................... 1739
Ph.D. THESES ABSTRACTS


The macro response Monte Carlo method for electron transport
Michelle M. Svatos .................................................................................... 1740


WORKS IN PROGRESS: 1999 AAPM ANNUAL MEETING ........................................... 1741



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