METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cylindrical plastic phantom with a spherical cavity 10 centimeters in diameter wss filled with water solution containing choline, creatine, and citrate. A gold seed fiducial marker was put near the center of the phantom mounted on a plastic stem. Spectra were acquired at 1.5 Tesla by use of a clinical MRSI sequence. The ratios of choline + creatine to citrate (CC/Ci) were compared in the presence and absence of gold seeds. Spectra in the vicinity of the gold seed were analyzed.
RESULTS: The maximum coefficient of variation of CC/Ci induced by the gold seed was found to be 10% in phantom experiments at 1.5 T.
CONCLUSION: MRSI can be used in prostate radiotherapy in the presence of gold seed markers. Gold seeds cause small effects (in the order of the standard deviation) on the ratio of the metabolite's CC/Ci in the phantom study done on a 1.5-T scanner. It is expected that gold seed markers will have similar negligible effect on spectra from prostate patients. The maximum of 10% of variation in CC/Ci found in the phantom study also sets a limit on the threshold accuracy of CC/Ci values for deciding whether the tissue characterized by a local spectrum is considered malignant and whether it is a candidate for local boost in radiotherapy dose.
Written by:
Hossain M, Schirmer T, Richardson T, Chen L, Buyyounouski MK, Ma CM. Are you the author?
Department of Radiation Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA.
Reference: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2012 Jan 13. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2011.06.2001
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22245188
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