Author(s)

Mohammad Mahdavi, Mahbobeh Khadem-Abolfazli, Seyed Rabee Mahdi Mahdavi, Gholamreza Ataei

Medical Physics Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Para Medical Department, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
Physics Department, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran.

Radiation-sensitive polymer gels are among the most promising three-dimensional dose verification tools and tissue-like phantom developed to date. This study is an investigating of percentage depth dose enhancement within the gel medium with the use of conformal distribution gold nanoparticle as contrast agents by high atomic number material. In this work, the normoxic polymer gel dosimeter MAGICA tissue-equivalence was first theoretically verified using MCNPX Monte Carlo code and experimentally by percentage depth dose curves within the gel medium. Then gold nanoparticles (GNPs) of 50 nm diameter with different concentrations of 0.1 mM, 0.2 mM, and 0.4 mM were embedded in MAGICA gel and irradiated by 18 MV photon beam. Experimental results have shown dose increase of 10%, 2% and 4% in 0.1 mM, 0.2 mM and 0.4 mM concentrations, respectively. Simulation results had good agreement in the optimum concentration of 0.1 mM. The largest error between experimental and simulation results was equal to 9.28% stood for 0.4 mM concentration. The results showed that the optimum concentration of gold nanoparticles to achieve maximum absorbed dose in both experimental and simulation was 0.1 mM and so it can be used for clinical studies.

Percentage Depth Dose; Polymer Gel Dosimeter; Gold Nanoparticles

M. Mahdavi, M. Khadem-Abolfazli, S. Mahdavi and G. Ataei, "Effect of Gold Nanoparticle on Percentage Depth Dose of 18 MV X-Ray in MAGICA Polymer Gel Dosimeter," Open Journal of Microphysics, Vol. 3 No. 2, 2013, pp. 28-33. doi: 10.4236/ojm.2013.32006.