Methods for determining absorbed dose information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9387344-B2
Application number	US-51485307-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2007
Priority date	Nov 21, 2006
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

The disclosure discusses methods for determining absorbed dose information. A tomography imaging device generates an anatomy image relating to anatomy of a particular patient. A tomography imaging device also generates multiple radioactivity images regarding radioactivity distribution of an internally administered pharmaceutical over time in the particular patient. The radioactivity images related to the radioactivity distribution over time are registered. Each radioactivity image is combined with each anatomy image to create activity images. A Monte Carlo simulation for each activity image is run to obtain absorbed dose-rate images of the pharmaceutical at multiple times. The absorbed dose-rate images are integrated over time to obtain a total absorbed dose image. The absorbed dose-rate images and the total absorbed dose image are used to obtain a biologically effective dose (BED) image. The BED image is used to obtain an equivalent uniform does (EUD) of BED values for a chosen anatomical region.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for determining absorbed dose information, comprising:
a.) generating at least one anatomy image relating to anatomy of a particular patient using at least one tomography imaging device;
b.) generating multiple radioactivity images regarding radioactivity distribution of an internally administered pharmaceutical over time in the particular patient using the at least one tomography imaging device;
c.) registering the radioactivity images related to the radioactivity distribution over time;
d.) combining each radioactivity image with each anatomy image to create activity images;
d.) running a Monte Carlo simulation for each activity image to obtain absorbed dose-rate images of the pharmaceutical at multiple times;
f.) integrating the absorbed dose-rate images over time to obtain a total absorbed dose image;
g.) using the absorbed dose-rate images and-total absorbed dose image to obtain a biologically effective dose (BED) image; and
h.) using the BED image to obtain an equivalent uniform dose (EUD) of BED values for a chosen anatomical region,
wherein steps c.) through h.) are performed by a computer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the BED is depicted as a frequency of occurrence of a particular BED.

3. The method of 2 , wherein the particular BED is depicted as:
a differential BED histogram;
an integral BED histogram; or
iso BED contours over the image; or
any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a BED for each voxel is obtained from an individual voxel dose value and an individual voxel dose-rate parameter value or by a voxel dose-rate half-time value.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the following equation is used to obtain the BED for each voxel given a voxel dose D ijk , and a voxel dose-rate parameter value or the voxel dose-rate half-time t e ijk :

B
⁢

⁢
E
⁢

⁢

D
ijk

=

D
ijk

+

β
⁢

⁢

D

ijk
2

α

⁢

(

ln
⁡

(
2
)

μ
·

t
e
ijk

+

ln
⁡

(
2
)

)

.

(
7
)

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising combining each radioactivity image to generate a cumulative activity image; wherein the Monte Carlo is executed on a cumulative activity image to generate an absorbed dose image.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the integrating is done analytically on a collection of data points represented by an equation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the integrating is done numerically on a collection of data points.

Assignees

• Sgouros George
• Song Hong
• Prideaux Andrew
• Hobbs Robert
• Univ Johns Hopkins

Inventors

• Sgouros George
• Song Hong
• Prideaux Andrew
• Hobbs Robert

Classifications

• A61N5/1039

  using functional images, e.g. PET or MRI · CPC title

• A61B6/037

  Emission tomography · CPC title

• A61N2005/1089

  Electrons · CPC title

• A61B6/032

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• A61B6/5217

  extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data · CPC title