Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul 8;25(14):4247.
doi: 10.3390/s25144247.

Proton Range Measurement Precision in Ionoacoustic Experiments with Wavelet-Based Denoising Algorithm

Elia Arturo Vallicelli  1 , Andrea Baschirotto  1 , Lorenzo Stevenazzi  1 , Mattia Tambaro  1 , Marcello De Matteis  1
Affiliations

Proton Range Measurement Precision in Ionoacoustic Experiments with Wavelet-Based Denoising Algorithm

Elia Arturo Vallicelli et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

This work presents the experimental results of a wavelet transform denoising algorithm (WTDA) that improves the ionoacoustic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and proton range measurement precision. Ionoacoustic detectors exploit the ultrasound signal generated by pulsed proton beams in energy absorbers (water or the human body) to localize the energy deposition with sub-millimeter precision, with interesting applications in beam monitoring during oncological hadron therapy treatments. By improving SNR and measurement precision, the WTDA allows significant reduction of the extra dose necessary for beam characterization. To validate the WTDA's performance, two scenarios are presented. First, the WTDA was applied to the ionoacoustic signals from a 20 MeV proton beam, where it allowed for increasing the SNR by 17 dB and improving measurement precision by a factor of two. Then, the WTDA was applied to the simulated signals from a 200 MeV clinical beam where, compared to state-of-the-art algorithms, it achieved a -80% dose reduction when achieving the same 30 μm precision and a six-fold precision improvement for the same 17 Gy dose deposition.

Keywords: circuits and systems for biomedical applications; radiation therapy; ultrasound sensors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bragg curve for 20 MeV protons.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Extra dose due to SNR increase by multiple beam pulse averaging.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Single−pulse and 1000-fold average ionoacoustic signals.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Block scheme of the wavelet denoising algorithm.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Single−pulse signal, 80-fold signal and single-pulse signal processed with WTDA.
Figure 6
Figure 6
WTDA output SNR as a function of input SNR.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The 20 MeV proton range measurement precision for averaging and the WTDA as a function of input SNR.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The 200 MeV proton 2D dose deposition profile and Bragg curve.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Simulated 200 Mev proton beam ionoacoustic signal with (black) and without (dotted) sensor and electronic noise.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Dose to achieve a given measurement precision for the WTDA and averaging.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Dose reduction allowed by wavelet denoising as a function of measurement precision expressed as a fraction of the Bragg peak size.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Histograms of the measured BP location (repeated 1000 times) for the WTDA and averaging.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Knoll G.F. Radiation Detection and Measurement. John Wiley & Sons; Hoboken, NJ, USA: 2000. Radiation Sources; pp. 1–28. Chapter 1.
    1. Parodi K., Polf J.C. In vivo range verification in particle therapy. Med. Phys. 2018;45:e1036–e1050. doi: 10.1002/mp.12960. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Min C.-H., Kim C.H., Youn M.-Y., Kim J.-W. Prompt gamma measurements for locating the dose falloff region in the proton therapy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006;89:183517. doi: 10.1063/1.2378561. - DOI
    1. Hueso-González F., Rabe M., Ruggieri T.A., Bortfeld T., Verburg J.M. A full-scale clinical prototype for proton range verification using prompt gamma-ray spectroscopy. Phys. Med. Biol. 2018;63:185019. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/aad513. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mirandola A., Molinelli S., Vilches Freixas G., Mairani A., Gallio E., Panizza D., Russo S., Ciocca M., Donetti M., Magro G., et al. Dosimetric commissioning and quality assurance of scanned ion beams at the Italian National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy. Radiat. Meas. Phys. 2015;42:5287–5300. doi: 10.1118/1.4928397. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources