Improved Dose Response of N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide Gel Dosimeter with Calcium Chloride for Radiotherapy

Khalid A Rabaeh; Rawan E Al-Tarawneh; Molham M Eyadeh; Issra' M E Hammoudeh; Moneeb T M Shatnawi

doi:10.3390/gels8020078

Improved Dose Response of N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide Gel Dosimeter with Calcium Chloride for Radiotherapy

Gels. 2022 Jan 26;8(2):78. doi: 10.3390/gels8020078.

Authors

Khalid A Rabaeh¹, Rawan E Al-Tarawneh², Molham M Eyadeh³, Issra' M E Hammoudeh⁴, Moneeb T M Shatnawi²

Affiliations

¹ Medical Imaging Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa 13133, Jordan.
² Physics Department, School of Science, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan.
³ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Yarmouk University, Irbid 21163, Jordan.
⁴ School of Basic Sciences and Humanities, German Jordanian University, Amman 11180, Jordan.

Abstract

The impact of calcium chloride (CaCl₂) on the performance of N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide (NHMA) polymer gel dosimeter is studied in this article. The dosimeter was exposed to doses of up to 10 Gy with radiation beam-energy of 10 MV and dose-rates of 300 cGy/min. The relaxation rate (R₂) parameter was utilized to explore the performance of irradiated NHMAGAT gels. The dose response in terms of R₂ increased from 0.29 to 0.63 Gy^-1·s^-1 with increasing calcium chloride concentration from 0 to 1000 mM. The results show no substantial impact of dose-rates as well as radiation energies on NHMAGAT samples. For the steadiness of irradiated NHMAGAT dosimeters, it was found that there is no apparent variation in R₂ (less than ±3%; standard deviation) up to 3 days. The overall uncertainty of the gel dosimeter with calcium chloride is 4.96% (double standard deviation, 95% confidence level).

Keywords: N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide; calcium chloride; dosimetry; nuclear magnetic resonance; polymer gel.