A Preliminary Study of Radiation Quality Correction Factor (Kq) Determination for Well-Type Ionization Chamber

Abstract

This paper deals with the determination of the radiation quality correction factor (kQ) well-type ionization chamber for the measurement of Co-60 brachytherapy. The measurement of the brachytherapy source has been done in the hospital brachytherapy facilities. The measurement of air Kerma has been done using three different ionization chambers 0.6 cm3, 30 cm3, 80 cm3, which have calibration factor traceability for Co-60 and one well-type ionization chamber which calibrated for Ir-192. The determination of the radiation quality correction factor (kQ) was determined based on the results of the air Kerma ratio between measurements using ionization chambers, which have traceability to Co-60 and Ir-192 sources. The results of the measurement of the reference air Kerma rate (RAKR) obtained from the three chambers were 21.36, 19.87, 19.34 mGy.m2.h-1, while the results of measurements with ionization chambers get a value of 19.01 mGy.m2.h-1. The kQCal results from 0.6 cm3 ionization chamber get a value of 1.07. The kQCal value was compared with the value of Andreas Schuller’s et al. kQreff of 1.05 and get a deviation of 2.2%. Implementation of the booth kQ value on the results of the RAKR from the HDR1000Plus well-type ionization chamber in the measurement of brachytherapy in two different facilities gets maximal deviation 1.7% with dose value from Treatment Planning System (TPS). The deviation was in the acceptable range of ±5%. Based on this, the use of radiation quality correction factor (kQ) value can be implemented as one method if it does not have the traceability factor calibration of the Co-60 brachytherapy source.