Phantom and method for quality monitoring of a medical system

• US 20080219410A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Knop, Sophia, Use, Tim, Gunzert-Marx, Konstanze
• Granted Patent: US 7,786,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/207
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/583 using calibration phantoms
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1076 using a dummy object placed in the radiation field, e.g. phantom
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1087 Ions; Protons
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1048 Monitoring, verifying, controlling systems and methods
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1075 for testing, calibrating, or quality assurance of the radiation treatment apparatus

Abstract

A phantom for quality monitoring of a medical system, in particular a medical therapy system, or particle therapy system, is described. The phantom has a fixation device for coupling the phantom to a positioning device. In an aspect, a method for quality monitoring in a medical system, in particular a medical therapy system or particle therapy system is described, in which such a phantom is coupled via a fixation device to a positioning device and, with the aid of the positioning device, is brought to a predefined position. In another aspect, a particle therapy system has a treatment chamber, with a positioning device to which a phantom can be coupled so that the phantom can be brought to a predefined spatial position using the positioning device.

Claims

1. A phantom for quality monitoring of a medical system, comprising

a fixation device for coupling a phantom to a positioning device,

wherein the phantom has a mounting for receiving a plurality of phantom units.

2. The phantom of claim 1, wherein the fixation device is configured to mount the phantom to the positioning device, the positioning device comprising a movable positioning device.

3. The phantom of claim 2, wherein the movable positioning device is a robot arm.

4. The phantom of claim 1, wherein the fixation device is configured to mount the phantom to a patient positioning device.

5. The phantom of claim 1, wherein the mounting is configured to interchangeably receive at least one of the plurality of phantom units.

6. The phantom of claim 1, wherein the phantom has a further mounting configured to receive a film unit.

7. The phantom of claim 1, wherein a portion of the phantom is a wedge phantom unit, or a further portion of the phantom is configured to receive an ionization chamber.

8. The phantom of claim 1, wherein the phantom has at least one position marking.

9. A method for quality monitoring of a medical system, the method comprising:

mounting a phantom to a positioning device using a fixation device; and

positioning the phantom using the positioning device so that the phantom is brought to a predefined position

performing quality monitoring of radiation therapy beam parameters,

wherein the phantom has a mounting configured to receive at least one of a plurality of phantom units, and a phantom unit of the plurality of phantom units is positioned successively at different predefined spatial positions.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the positioning device is automatically positioned by a robot arm.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the positioning device is a patient positioning device.

12. The method of claims 9, wherein the phantom has at least one position marking, and the desired positioning of the phantom at a predefined position is verified with the aid of the position marking.

13. A medical treatment system, the system comprising:

a particle therapy apparatus, the particle therapy apparatus further comprising;

a movable positioning device;

a phantom fixable to the movable positioning device;

wherein the phantom is configured to interchangeably accept a phantom unit of a plurality of phantom units.

14. The medical treatment system of claim 13, wherein the particle therapy apparatus further comprises an ion generator and an ion accelerator to produce an ion beam.

15. The medical treatment system of claim 14, wherein the movable positioning unit is a robot, the robot configured to accept commands so as to position the phantom unit to measure a parameter of the ion beam.

16. The medical treatment system of claim 15, wherein the robot is a patient support table.