Applications of Optically Stimulated Luminescence in Medical Dosimetry

Abstract

If the first decade of the new millennium saw the establishment of a more solid foundation for the use of the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) in medical dosimetry, the second decade saw the technique take root and become more widely used in clinical studies. Recent publications report not only characterization and feasibility studies of the OSL technique for various applications in radiotherapy and radiology, but also the practical use of OSL for postal audits, estimation of staff dose, in vivo dosimetry, dose verification and dose mapping studies. This review complements previous review papers and reports on the topic, providing a panorama of the new advances and applications in the last decade. Attention is also dedicated to potential future applications, such as LET dosimetry, 2D/3D dosimetry using OSL, dosimetry in magnetic resonance imaging-guided radiotherapy (MRIgRT) and dosimetry of extremely high dose rates (FLASH therapy).

Thermoluminescence Dosimetry (Tld) in Medicine: Five ‘W’s and One How

“…Figure 1 shows the number of publications listed in the PubMed database with the search terms TLD in any field. This is compared with the mention of OSL covered in a paper by Yukihara and Kron in this special issue (19) .…”

“…One of the more interesting aspects of TLD is that OSL, which is discussed in more detail in a different chapter of this special edition (19) , is closely related to TLD. Both techniques analyse light emitted after stimulation, one using light and one heat.…”

“…Both techniques analyse light emitted after stimulation, one using light and one heat. Not surprisingly, Table 1 also includes the two materials listed in the OSL report by E. Yukihara (19) . The combination of two evaluation techniques is possible (73) as TL readout to moderate temperatures can leave the OSL signal unaffected (74) .…”

“…Due to the development of other techniques, that address some of TLDs shortcomings, TLD is used in fewer clinics as a routine dosimetric tool. In particular OSL (19,83) covered also in this issue has been of interest as an alternative high sensitivity technique without need for cables. However, tissue equivalence and robustness make TLD still an attractive solution in many scenarios where irradiation conditions are tricky to predict.…”

Infrared Stimulated Luminescence of Ce3+ Doped YAG Crystals

“…When stimulated with IR at about 870 nm, the previously irradiated GGAG:Ce crystals exhibit very strong luminescent emission in the range of 500–600 nm, which is typical for Ce 3+ emission in garnets. OSL is the method more and more widely used in dosimetry [ 10 , 11 ], but IR stimulation (IRSL) was not yet exploited for this purpose. Such stimulation is so far used almost exclusively for the dating of geological sediments and archeological artifacts (mainly measurements of luminescence of feldspar minerals).…”