TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of a shielded 241Am applicator for continuous low dose rate irradiation of rat rectum
AU - Nath, Ravinder
AU - Rockwell, Sara
AU - King, Christopher R.
AU - Bongiorni, Paul
AU - Kelley, Marianne
AU - Carter, Darryl
PY - 1992
Y1 - 1992
N2 - This paper describes the development of sources, applicators, and techniques that can be used to irradiate rat rectums with continuous irradiation at dose rates of interest in brachytherapy, either with the full circumference of the rectum irradiated, or with half of the circumference shielded from the radiation. The system uses encapsulated 241Am sources, to irradiate rat rectum with 60 keV photons continuously at a dose rate of up to 50 cGy/hr. Details of the design and fabrication of the 241Am sources, the rectal applicator, the dosimetry of the system, and the protocols for preparing and irradiating the rats, and for detecting early rectal injury using histological examination of irradiated rectum are presented. Highly effective shielding (attenuation factors as low as 0.04) of half of the circumference of the rat rectum was achievable. Unidirectional 241Am irradiators for intracavitary brachytherapy offer a unique tool for examining the effects of shielding a portion of the circumference of the rat radiation tolerance of the rectum.
AB - This paper describes the development of sources, applicators, and techniques that can be used to irradiate rat rectums with continuous irradiation at dose rates of interest in brachytherapy, either with the full circumference of the rectum irradiated, or with half of the circumference shielded from the radiation. The system uses encapsulated 241Am sources, to irradiate rat rectum with 60 keV photons continuously at a dose rate of up to 50 cGy/hr. Details of the design and fabrication of the 241Am sources, the rectal applicator, the dosimetry of the system, and the protocols for preparing and irradiating the rats, and for detecting early rectal injury using histological examination of irradiated rectum are presented. Highly effective shielding (attenuation factors as low as 0.04) of half of the circumference of the rat rectum was achievable. Unidirectional 241Am irradiators for intracavitary brachytherapy offer a unique tool for examining the effects of shielding a portion of the circumference of the rat radiation tolerance of the rectum.
KW - Am
KW - Brachytherapy
KW - Dose-volume effects
KW - Rat rectum
KW - Rectal injury
KW - Shielding
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0026611756&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0026611756&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0360-3016(92)90558-Y
DO - 10.1016/0360-3016(92)90558-Y
M3 - Article
C2 - 1572814
AN - SCOPUS:0026611756
SN - 0360-3016
VL - 23
SP - 175
EP - 181
JO - International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics
JF - International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics
IS - 1
ER -