US 11,986,671 B2
System and method for estimating and manipulating estimated radiation dose
Karl Otto, Salt Spring Island (CA)
Assigned to SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS INTERNATIONAL AG, Steinhausen (CH)
Filed by SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS INTERNATIONAL AG, Steinhausen (CH)
Filed on Aug. 13, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/992,560.
Application 16/992,560 is a continuation of application No. 16/030,752, filed on Jul. 9, 2018, granted, now 10,773,101.
Application 16/030,752 is a continuation of application No. 15/046,062, filed on Feb. 17, 2016, granted, now 10,052,500, issued on Aug. 21, 2018.
Application 15/046,062 is a continuation of application No. 13/806,677, granted, now 9,289,627, issued on Mar. 22, 2016, previously published as PCT/CA2011/050385, filed on Jun. 22, 2011.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/398,286, filed on Jun. 22, 2010.
Prior Publication US 2020/0368553 A1, Nov. 26, 2020
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61N 5/10 (2006.01); A61N 5/00 (2006.01); G01T 1/29 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 5/1031 (2013.01) [A61N 5/00 (2013.01); A61N 5/10 (2013.01); G01T 1/29 (2013.01); H05K 999/00 (2013.01); H05K 999/99 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, executable on a processor, for permitting manipulation of an achievable dose distribution estimate deliverable by a radiation delivery apparatus for proposed treatment of a subject, the processor being configured to create a calculation grid and superimposing the calculation grid over a delineated image of the subject, the calculation grid comprising a three-dimensional grid of voxels spanning a region of interest within the subject, the achievable dose distribution estimate being defined over the three-dimensional grid of voxels with a dose value for each voxel, the method comprising:
(a) determining, from the grid, a dose modification voxel for which dose value modification is desired and determining a corresponding magnitude of desired dose modification;
(b) for each of a plurality of beams:
(i) defining, using the processor, each beam as a two-dimensional array of beamlets, wherein each beamlet is associated with a corresponding intensity value and a ray line representing a projection of the beamlet into space; and
(ii) identifying, using the processor, one or more dose-change beamlets which have associated ray lines that intersect the dose modification voxel on the grid; and
(c) modifying, using the processor, the intensity values of the identified one or more dose-change beamlets based on the magnitude of the desired dose modification, wherein modifying the intensity values of the identified one or more dose-change beamlets comprises, for each of the identified dose-change beamlets, modifying an intensity value of the identified dose-change beamlet by a corresponding amount, the corresponding amount based on the magnitude of the desired dose modification;
wherein modifying the intensity values of the identified one or more of the dose-change beamlets comprises subjecting proposed intensity value modifications to one or more intensity restrictions.