A study on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based radiation treatment planning of intracranial lesions

The aim of this study is to develop a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based treatment planning procedure for intracranial lesions. The method relies on (a) distortion correction of raw magnetic resonance (MR) images by using an adaptive thresholding and iterative technique, (b) autosegmentation of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics in medicine & biology 2008-07, Vol.53 (13), p.3579-3593
Main Authors: Stanescu, T, Jans, H-S, Pervez, N, Stavrev, P, Fallone, B G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Brain Diseases - pathology
Brain Diseases - radiotherapy
Head - pathology
Head - radiation effects
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Radiometry - methods
Radiotherapy Dosage
Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods
Treatment Outcome
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The aim of this study is to develop a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based treatment planning procedure for intracranial lesions. The method relies on (a) distortion correction of raw magnetic resonance (MR) images by using an adaptive thresholding and iterative technique, (b) autosegmentation of head structures relevant to dosimetric calculations (scalp, bone and brain) using an atlas-based software and (c) conversion of MR images into computed tomography (CT)-like images by assigning bulk CT values to organ contours and dose calculations performed in Eclipse (Philips Medical Systems). Standard CT + MRI-based and MRI-only plans were compared by means of isodose distributions, dose volume histograms and several dosimetric parameters. The plans were also ranked by using a tumor control probability (TCP)-based technique for heterogeneous irradiation, which is independent of radiobiological parameters. For our 3 T Intera MRI scanner (Philips Medical Systems), we determined that the total maximum image distortion corresponding to a typical brain study was about 4 mm. The CT + MRI and MRI-only plans were found to be in good agreement for all patients investigated. Following our clinical criteria, the TCP-based ranking tool shows no significant difference between the two types of plans. This indicates that the proposed MRI-based treatment planning procedure is suitable for the radiotherapy of intracranial lesions.
ISSN:0031-9155
1361-6560
DOI:10.1088/0031-9155/53/13/013