The purpose of this study was to develop a computerized method for estimation of the location of a lung tumor in cine images on an electronic portal imaging device (EPID) without implanted markers during stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Each tumor region was segmented in the first EPID cine image, i.e., reference portal image, based on a multiple-gray level thresholding technique and a region growing technique, and then the image including the tumor region was cropped as a 'tumor template' image. The tumor location was determined as the position in which the tumor template image took the maximum cross-correlation value within each consecutive portal image, which was acquired in cine mode on the EPID in treatment. EPID images with 512 x 384 pixels (pixel size: 0.56 mm) were acquired at a sampling rate of 0.5 frame s(-1) by using energies of 4, 6 or 10 MV on linear accelerators. We applied our proposed method to EPID cine images (226 frames) of 12 clinical cases (ages: 51-83, mean: 72) with a non-small cell lung cancer. As a result, the average location error between tumor points obtained by our method and the manual method was 1.47 +/- 0.60 mm. This preliminary study suggests that our method based on the tumor template matching technique might be feasible for tracking the location of a lung tumor without implanted markers in SBRT.

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The loss of Ba atoms from the electrode of a fluorescent lamp was measured while the lamp was operated in the glow and arc discharge modes at 60 Hz. A laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technique was applied to the measurements of the temporal and spatial distributions of Ba atoms in the vicinity of the electrode. Ground-state (6 1 S 0 ) Ba atoms were excited to a 5 1 P 1 level by a frequency-doubled dye laser beam (350.1 nm), and the subsequent fluorescence (5 1 P 1 -5 1 D 2 , 582.6 nm) was detected. The temporal and spatial distributions of Ba atoms were found to be completely different in the two discharge modes. Temporally; in the arc discharge mode, the density of the Ba atoms was found to have two peaks, and the number of Ba atoms emitted in the anode half-cycle was about twofold larger than that emitted in the cathode half-cycle. In the glow discharge mode, the number of Ba atoms emitted in the anode half-cycle was found to be negligible compared with that emitted in the cathode half-cycle. Spatially; in the arc discharge mode, Ba atoms were found to be emitted mainly from the hot spot of the filament electrode. In the glow discharge mode, Ba atoms were found to be emitted from all parts of the filament electrodes homogeneously. The mechanism of Ba atom loss in both modes was discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a method for automated estimation of a lung tumor region and its displacement on an electronic portal imaging device (EPID) during lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) without implanted markers. Method and Materials: Our method for automated estimation of the tumor region and its displacement was based on a template matching technique with cross‐correlation coefficient between a target template image and each consecutive portal (CP) image, which was acquired in cine mode with the EPID in each treatment. Each target region was segmented in the first EPID cine image, which was referred to as the reference portal (RP) image, based on a multiple‐gray level thresholding technique and a region growing technique, and then a target template image was extracted as “a tumor template”. The displacement vector of a target was determined from the position in which the target template image took the maximum cross‐correlation value within the CP image. EPID images with 512×384 pixels (pixel size: 0.56 mm) were acquired in a cine mode at a sampling rate of 0.5 frame/sec by using x‐ray energies of 4, 6, or 10 MV on linear accelerators. We applied our proposed method to EPID cine images of 12 cases (ages: 51–83, mean: 73) with a non‐small cell lung cancer. Results: For 12 cases, the target displacements obtained by our method agreed with those determined by the manual method by a mean correlation value of 0.839. Each tumor region segmented by our proposed method was overlapped by 60% on average with that determined by the manual method. Conclusion: This preliminary result suggested that our proposed method may be useful for estimating of displacements of target positions without implanted markers in lung SBRT.