Yogesh Kannan Mariappan1, Silvio L. Vieira2, Julianna P. Fernandes2, Antonio Adilton Carneiro2, Mostafa Fatemi3, Richard L. Ehman1
1Department of Radiology, Mayo clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; 2Departamento de Fisica e Mathematica da FFCLRP, Universidade de Sao paulo, Ribeorao Preto, SP, Brazil; 3Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Polymer gel dosimetry involves the estimation of radiation dose distribution based on radiation induced changes. Since these phantoms undergo polymerization of monomers, we hypothesized that it would affect the mechanical properties. We tested this hypothesis in a series of phantom experiments and investigated the stiffness of radiated phantoms as a function of absorbed radiation doses using Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE). The results show that the stiffness of a polymer gel dosimeter is directly correlated to the amount of the applied radiation dose and hence it would be feasible to estimate radiation dose distribution with MRE.