A practical implementation of the 2010 IPEM high dose rate brachytherapy code of practice for the calibration of 192Ir sources

This paper details a practical method for deriving the reference air kerma rate calibration coefficient for Farmer NE2571 chambers using the UK Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) code of practice for the determination of the reference air kerma rate for HDR 192Ir brachytherapy sources based on the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) air kerma standard. The reference air kerma rate calibration coefficient was derived using pressure, temperature and source decay corrected ionization chamber response measurements over three successive 192Ir source clinical cycles. A secondary standard instrument (a Standard Imaging 1000 Plus well chamber) and four tertiary standard instruments (one additional Standard Imaging 1000 Plus well chamber and three Farmer NE2571 chambers housed in a perspex phantom) were used to provide traceability to the NPL primary standard and enable comparison of performance between the chambers. Conservative and optimized estimates on the expanded uncertainties (k = 2) associated with chamber response, ion recombination and reference air kerma rate calibration coefficient were determined. This was seen to be 2.3% and 0.4% respectively for chamber response, 0.2% and 0.08% respectively for ion recombination and 2.6% and 1.2% respectively for the calibration coefficient. No significant change in ion recombination with source decay was observed over the duration of clinical use of the respective 192Ir sources.