Experimental determination of dosimetric characterization of a newly designed encapsulated interstitial brachytherapy source of 103Pd-model Pd-1.

A newly designed encapsulated 103Pd source has been introduced (BrachySeed-Pd-103, also named Model Pd-1, manufactured by DRAXIMAGE Inc. and distributed by Cytogen Corp.) for interstitial brachytherapy to provide more isotropic dose distributions. In this work, the dosimetric characteristics of the 103Pd source were measured with micro LiF TLD chips and dosimetry parameters were characterized based upon the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group No. 43 formalism. The dose rate constant of the sources was determined to be 0.66 +/-0.05 cGy h(-1) U(-1). The radial dose function was measured and was found to be similar to that of the Theragenics Model 200 103Pd source. The anisotropy constant for the Model Pd-1 source was determined to be 1.03.