Collimator for high-energy radiation and program for controlling said collimator
First Claim
1. A collimator for defining a beam of high energy rays which is emitted from a substantially punctiform radiation source and directed onto an object to be treated and adaptable to stereotactic conformation irradiation of tumors, the collimator being designed to scan an irregular object to be treated using the beam defined by a collimator opening, the collimator comprising:
- means defining a plurality of collimator openings having differing sizes;
means for positioning said defining means to select one of said plurality of openings and for displacing said selected opening in any desired direction along a spherical surface shaped path, wherein a control axis of said selected opening remains oriented towards the radiation source, with non-selected collimator openings being shielded from radiation;
a drive means cooperating with said positioning means for selecting said selected opening and for displacing said selected opening; and
a control communicating with said drive means to command positioning of said defining means and displacement of said selected collimator opening, wherein large collimator openings are used for scanning large portions of a radiation surface of the object to be treated and small collimator openings are used for exact definition at edges of said radiation surface and for treatment of radiation surfaces having irregular contours.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to a collimator (1) for defining a beam of energetic rays (2) which is emitted from an essentially punctiform radiation source (3) and is oriented onto an object (1) to be treated. The collimator is especially used for the stereotactic conformation radiotherapy of tumors. The collimator (1) is embodied in such a way that an irregular object (4) can be scanned by rays (2, 2′) which are defined by an opening in the collimator. The invention also relates to a program for controlling the collimator. In order to define the contours (29, 29′, 29″) of the objects (4) to be irradiated in a simple but highly accurate manner, especially with a precise definition of the irradiation fields, the collimator comprises a plurality of different sized openings (5, 5′ 5″). One of the openings (5, 5′, 5″) can be selectively displaced in a polydirectional manner on a strip (6) having a spherical surface, and the central axis (7) thereof is oriented towards the radiation source (3). The other collimator openings (5′, 5″) are shielded form the rays (2). A control system (9) acts on the drives (23, 24, 25) of a drive device (8) in such a way that large openings (5, 5′) are used to scan large irradiation surfaces (26) of the object to be treated (4), and small openings (5′, 5″) are used for precise definition at the edge of the irradiation surfaces (26) of the object to be treated (4), especially in the event of irregular contours (29, 29′, 29″).
30 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A collimator for defining a beam of high energy rays which is emitted from a substantially punctiform radiation source and directed onto an object to be treated and adaptable to stereotactic conformation irradiation of tumors, the collimator being designed to scan an irregular object to be treated using the beam defined by a collimator opening, the collimator comprising:
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means defining a plurality of collimator openings having differing sizes; means for positioning said defining means to select one of said plurality of openings and for displacing said selected opening in any desired direction along a spherical surface shaped path, wherein a control axis of said selected opening remains oriented towards the radiation source, with non-selected collimator openings being shielded from radiation; a drive means cooperating with said positioning means for selecting said selected opening and for displacing said selected opening; and a control communicating with said drive means to command positioning of said defining means and displacement of said selected collimator opening, wherein large collimator openings are used for scanning large portions of a radiation surface of the object to be treated and small collimator openings are used for exact definition at edges of said radiation surface and for treatment of radiation surfaces having irregular contours. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification