Dose-response characteristics of a ferrous-sulphate-doped gelatin system for determining radiation absorbed dose distributions by magnetic resonance imaging (Fe MRI).

The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) longitudinal relaxation rate R1 dose-response characteristics of a ferrous-sulphate-doped chemical dosimeter system (Fe MRI) immobilized in a gelatin matrix were explored. Samples containing various concentrations of the FeSO4 dosimeter were irradiated to absorbed doses of 0-150 Gy. R1 relaxation rates were determined by imaging the samples at a field strength of 1.5T(1H Lamor frequency of 63.8 MHz). The response of the system was found to be approximately linear up to doses of 50 Gy for all FeSO4 concentrations studied (0.1-2.0 mM). Changing concentrations in the range of 0.1-0.5 mM affected both the slope and intercept of the dose-response curve. For concentrations of 0.5-2.0 mM, the slope of the dose-response curves remained constant at approximately 0.0423 s-1 Gy-1 in the dose range of 0-50 Gy. However, the intercept of the curve continued to increase in that region, as expected, because of the additional paramagnetic ions. The reproducibility of the absorbed dose estimates for measurements made over a 22 cm field of view was found to be 5% in the range of 20-50 Gy (an uncertainty of 0.81 Gy on average), decreasing to approximately 10% in the dose range of 5-10 Gy.