SU-E-J-144: Low Activity Studies of Carbon 11 Activation Via GATE Monte Carlo
- Hampton University, Hampton, VA (United States)
- Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute, Hampton, VA (United States)
Purpose: To investigate the behavior of a Monte Carlo simulation code with low levels of activity (∼1,000Bq). Such activity levels are expected from phantoms and patients activated via a proton therapy beam. Methods: Three different ranges for a therapeutic proton radiation beam were examined in a Monte Carlo simulation code: 13.5, 17.0 and 21.0cm. For each range, the decay of an equivalent length{sup 11}C source and additional sources of length plus or minus one cm was studied in a benchmark PET simulation for activities of 1000, 2000 and 3000Bq. The ranges were chosen to coincide with a previous activation study, and the activities were chosen to coincide with the approximate level of isotope creation expected in a phantom or patient irradiated by a therapeutic proton beam. The GATE 7.0 simulation was completed on a cluster node, running Scientific Linux Carbon 6 (Red Hat©). The resulting Monte Carlo data were investigated with the ROOT (CERN) analysis tool. The half-life of{sup 11}C was extracted via a histogram fit to the number of simulated PET events vs. time. Results: The average slope of the deviation of the extracted carbon half life from the expected/nominal value vs. activity showed a generally positive value. This was unexpected, as the deviation should, in principal, decrease with increased activity and lower statistical uncertainty. Conclusion: For activity levels on the order of 1,000Bq, the behavior of a benchmark PET test was somewhat unexpected. It is important to be aware of the limitations of low activity PET images, and low activity Monte Carlo simulations. This work was funded in part by the Philips corporation.
- OSTI ID:
- 22494155
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Vol. 42, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2015 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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