Attenuation Lab

Introduction
The objective of this lab and handout is for the student to understand the principle of attenuation
of the radiation beam as it passes through an object placed in the path of the beam and how to
calculate the transmission factor appropriately which will be used in a patient treatment
calculation.
This guide will walk you through the fundamental process of photon attenuation. It will also
provide measured data which will be used by the student in the attenuation lab analysis. When
you have reached the end of this handout you will have to answer questions to test your
understanding of the topic.
As photons traverse matter some are removed from the beam by either absorption or scatter.
When the photon is absorbed the energy of the photon is deposited into the medium. When the
photon scatters it interacts with the medium and deflects from its original path. Both of these
phenomenon result in a loss in intensity of the beam.
A photon beam is often described in terms of intensity, which is essentially the number of
photons in a given beam. The intensity 𝐼(𝑥) will be decreased when the beam traverses a
medium of given thickness 𝑥 before the point of detection as shown in Figure 1. When the
medium is sufficiently far away from the point of detection this is often described as a “good
geometry” or “narrow beam geometry” because the only photons which reach the detector are
primary photons. Those photons which have been absorbed or scattered are not measured.

Figure 1: Narrow beam geometry where on the primary photons are measured by the detector courtesy of
Khan [1].

Every medium has its own inherent ability to attenuate photons at specific energies which is
often described in terms a linear attenuation coefficient 𝜇. This quantity’s units are photons per
unit length. To determine the intensity which will reach the detector we can use Eq ( 1 ).
𝐼(𝑥) = 𝐼0 𝑒 −𝜇𝑥
Eq ( 1 )
 Initial Photon
Intensity

Detector

Figure 3. Broad beam geometry where photons are being scattered to the detector.

When we look to quantify the attenuation of a material, we end up measuring transmission. For
example, if you take a measurement of an open field without the material let’s say you count 10
photons. When you put the material in the field you take another measurement and you count 4
photons. The transmission is the ratio of the final number of photons or intensity 𝐼 and the initial
𝐼0 , see Eq ( 2 ).
𝐼
𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝐼0
Eq ( 2 )

For our simplistic example, the transmission is

4 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 = = 0.40 𝑜𝑟 40% 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟
10 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠
In this example, we understand that 6 photons were absorbed or scattered. The attenuation is
related to the transmission by using Eq ( 3 ).
𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 1 − 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
Eq ( 3 )

For all the factors we measure in this lab, we will be measuring the transmission. As we are
concerned with the amount of radiation which transmits through the material and reaches the
patient.
Clinically we will often encounter scenarios where objects are placed in between the x-ray
source and the patient. These objects can be wedges, tray, blocks, compensators, treatment
couches, or bolus, just to name a few. The perturbation these objects cause the radiation beam
are accounted for in the MU calculation formalism Eq ( 4 ). Take note there is a wedge (WF)
and a tray factor (TF).
Results
A final table was created to summarize all the data acquired. This is shown in Table 5.
Table 5. Average readings for an 10x10 field size, 100 SAD and 100 MU delivered. The open field
readings are taken with no dose modifying device in the beam. All readings were taken 3 times and
averaged for the given 4 delivery scenarios.

Average Charge Reading per Attenuating Device

Energy (MV) Open Field 60-degree 60-degree Blocking Tray
Physical Wedge EDW
6 12.16 nC 4.95 nC 7.999 nC 11.67 nC
15 14.15 nC 6.24 nC 10.13 nC 13.73 nC

Now that we have the results, let’s look at a couple of example calculations. These examples
should be able to help you answer the questions regarding this handout.
To calculate the 60-degree physical Wedge Factor for our 15MV beam let’s use Eq ( 5 ) and the
data from Table 5.
𝐷𝑤𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 (15𝑀𝑉) 6.24 𝑛𝐶
𝑊𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 = = = 0.441
𝐷𝑁𝑜 𝑊𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒 (15𝑀𝑉) 14.15 𝑛𝐶

Given the 60-degree wedge thickness on central axis, could we calculate the linear attenuation
coefficient of this material for a 6MV beam? Let’s say the thickness of the wedge is 1.5cm at the
central axis. We will refer back to Eq ( 1 ).
𝐼(𝑥) = 𝐼0 𝑒 −𝜇𝑥

For this equation, we will need the initial intensity without the wedge 𝐼0 , the final intensity with
the wedge 𝐼(𝑥) and the thickness of the material. We will assume the initial intensity is 12.16
nC, the final intensity is 4.95 nC, the thickness 𝑥 is 1.5cm. To answer this question, we will have
to solve for 𝜇.
Before we start I am going to drop the notation of (𝑥) from the final intensity 𝐼(𝑥). This notation
is utilized to simply show the final intensity depends on the thickness of the material. Let’s first
start by dividing 𝐼0 and moving it to the left side of the equation.
𝐼 𝐼0
= 𝑒 − 𝜇𝑥
𝐼0 𝐼0

This will result in

𝐼
= 𝑒 − 𝜇𝑥
𝐼0