# US 2013/0158879 A1 · Methods and apparatus for hardware based radiation dose calculation

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2013/0158879 A1
- Document ID: US20130158879A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 11/685,475
- Filed: 2007-03-13
- Published: 2013-06-20
- Earliest claimed: 2006-03-14
- Assignees: University of Notre Dame du Lac; University of Maryland, Baltimore
- Inventors: Xiaobo Sharon Hu; Cedric Xinsheng Yu; Bo Zhou; Danny Ziyi Chen; Kevin Whitton
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20130158879A1

## CPC

- G16H 20/40: relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture
- A61N 5/1031: {using a specific method of dose optimization}
- A61N 2005/1034: {Monte Carlo type methods; particle tracking}
- G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA
- A61N: ELECTROTHERAPY; MAGNETOTHERAPY; RADIATION THERAPY; ULTRASOUND THERAPY (measurement of bioelectric currents A61B; surgical instruments, devices or methods for transferring non-mechanical forms of energy to or from the body A61B18/00; anaesthetic apparatus in general A61M; incandescent lamps H01K; infrared radiators for heating H05B)

## Abstract

Disclosed is an example method to calculate radiation dose. The method includes receiving a tissue matrix in which the tissue matrix includes a plurality of voxels. The example method also includes producing a first plurality of transport lines with a direction controller in which each transport line is indicative of a cone of irradiated energy, and calculating at least one radiation dose with at least one deposit engine substantially in parallel with producing a second plurality of transport lines with the direction controller.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for calculating radiation dose comprising:
receiving a tissue matrix, the tissue matrix comprising a plurality of voxels;
producing a first plurality of transport lines with a direction controller, each transport line indicative of a cone of irradiated energy;
receiving each of the produced first plurality of transport lines in an available one of a plurality of deposit engines;
calculating at least one radiation dose with the plurality of deposit engines receiving the first plurality of transport lines substantially in parallel with producing a second plurality of transport lines with the direction controller.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, wherein calculating the at least one radiation dose further comprises calculating a first dose with a first deposit engine and calculating a second dose with a second deposit engine.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:
providing the first and second plurality of transport lines from the direction controller to a plurality of deposit engines, and
independently calculating a radiation dose associated with each of the first and second transport lines via the deposit engines.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising calculating a physical path length of the irradiated energy, the physical path length provided to the at least one deposit engine to calculate the at least one radiation dose.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

A method as defined in claim 4, further comprising calculating the physical path length via a trace engine independently of the at least one deposit engine.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising generating a first seed plane from a first portion of the tissue matrix and a second seed plane from a second portion of the tissue matrix, the at least one radiation dose independently calculated by the at least one deposit engine.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising employing a collapsed cone algorithm to calculate the at least one radiation dose.

### Claim 8

An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:
receive a tissue matrix, the tissue matrix comprising a plurality of voxels;
produce a first plurality of transport lines with a direction controller, each transport line indicative of a cone of irradiated energy;
transmit each of the produced first plurality of transport lines to an available one of a plurality of deposit engines; and
calculate at least one radiation dose with the plurality of deposit engines substantially in parallel with producing a second plurality of transport lines with the direction controller.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

An article of manufacture as defined in claim 8, wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to calculate a first dose with a first deposit engine and calculate a second dose with a second deposit engine.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

An article of manufacture as defined in claim 8, wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to provide the first and second plurality of transport lines to a plurality of deposit engines, the deposit engines independently calculating a radiation dose associated with each of the first and second transport lines.

### Claim 11 (depends on 8)

An article of manufacture as defined in claim 8, wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to calculate a physical path length of the irradiated energy, the physical path length provided to the at least one deposit engine to calculate the at least one radiation dose.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

An article of manufacture as defined in claim 11, wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to calculate the physical path length independently of the at least one deposit engine.

### Claim 13 (depends on 8)

An article of manufacture as defined in claim 8, wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to generate a first seed plane from a first portion of the tissue matrix and a second seed plane from a second portion of the tissue matrix, the at least one radiation dose independently calculated by the at least one deposit engine.

### Claim 14 (depends on 8)

An article of manufacture as defined in claim 8, wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to calculate the at least one radiation dose with a collapsed cone algorithm.

### Claim 15

An apparatus to calculate radiation dose comprising:
a field programmable gate array (FPGA);
at least one direction module programmed into the field programmable gate array, the at least one direction module comprising a direction controller to produce a plurality of transport lines, and a plurality of deposit engines to calculate radiation dose; and
a direction module controller coupled to each of the at least one direction module to facilitate parallel execution of the at least one direction module.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

An apparatus as defined in claim 15, further comprising a ray-tracing engine to calculate a physical path length of irradiated energy, the physical path length provided to the plurality of deposit engines to calculate radiation dose.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

An apparatus as defined in claim 16, further comprising an engine arbitrator to facilitate parallel execution of the ray-tracing engine and the plurality of the deposit engines.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

An apparatus as defined in claim 15, further comprising a first memory to provide matrix data to the FPGA, the matrix data indicative of an area of interest of patient tissue.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

An apparatus as defined in claim 18, wherein the first memory comprises at least one of total energy released per mass, mass density, exponential kernel, or electron volume density.

### Claim 20 (depends on 18)

An apparatus as defined in claim 18, further comprising a second memory to store a plurality of calculated radiation doses from the plurality of deposit engines.

### Claim 21 (depends on 15)

An apparatus as defined in claim 15, further comprising a plurality of direction modules, the plurality of direction modules communicatively coupled to the at least one direction module.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of calculating a radiation dose further comprises:
receiving via a computer-readable memory first information indicative of a patient anatomy;
receiving via the computer-readable memory second information indicative of a radiation beam parameter;
formatting the first and second information as a hardware-readable data structure; and
executing a dose calculation algorithm on a hardware-based calculation engine programmed to read the hardware-readable data structure and to execute computer-readable instructions to calculate the radiation dose from the formatted data structure.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, wherein the hardware-based calculation engine is a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

A method as defined in claim 23, further comprising calculating a kernel associated with a radiation beam.

### Claim 25 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising configuring the dose calculation algorithm to execute with at least two parallel threads.

### Claim 26 (depends on 25)

A method as defined in claim 25, further comprising independently executing the at least two parallel threads.

### Claim 27 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising allocating a plurality of memory segments accessible by the hardware-based calculation engine, each of the plurality of memory segments associated with at least one of a plurality of dose calculation threads.

### Claim 28 (depends on 27)

A method as defined in claim 27, further comprising independently accessing each of the plurality of memory segments by a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

### Claim 29 (depends on 28)

A method as defined in claim 28, further comprising processing at least one of the plurality of dose calculation threads by the FPGA comprising at least one direction module.

### Claim 30 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, wherein the dose calculation algorithm comprises at least one of a collapsed cone algorithm or a Monte-Carlo algorithm.

### Claim 31 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising providing the hardware-based calculation engine with a plurality of physical path lengths of irradiated energy through the patient anatomy.

### Claim 32 (depends on 31)

A method as defined in claim 31, further comprising recursively calculating the plurality of physical path lengths with a ray tracing engine.

### Claim 33 (depends on 32)

A method as defined in claim 32, further comprising independently calculating the plurality of physical path lengths via a plurality of ray tracing engines.

### Claim 34 (depends on 32)

A method as defined in claim 32, further comprising independently calculating the plurality of partial dose in at least one voxel via a plurality of deposition engines.

### Claim 35 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, wherein the hardware-readable data structure comprises a matrix of tissue densities associated with the patient anatomy.

### Claim 36 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising computing raytrace information, the raytrace information stored in a memory block.

### Claim 37 (depends on 36)

A method as defined in claim 36, further comprising sharing the raytrace information by a plurality of deposition engines.

### Claim 38 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising calculating dose along a plurality of kernels among a plurality of hardware blocks.

### Claim 39 (depends on 38)

A method as defined in claim 38, further comprising independently calculating the radiation dose among the plurality of hardware blocks.

### Claim 40 (depends on 38)

A method as defined in claim 38, further comprising calculating via the plurality of hardware blocks in parallel.

### Claim 41 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising controlling a plurality of deposition engines by a direction controller.

### Claim 42 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, wherein formatting the at least one of first or second information comprises a three-dimensional matrix to represent an electron density of the patient anatomy.

### Claim 43 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, wherein the hardware-readable data structure comprises a three-dimensional matrix indicative of radiation beam characteristics.

### Claim 44 (depends on 43)

A method as defined in claim 43, wherein the radiation beam characteristics comprise at least one of a polyenergetic beam energy distribution or a monoenergetic beam energy distribution.

### Claim 45 (depends on 44)

A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the at least one of the polyenergetic beam or the monoenergetic beam comprises a single point or a narrow beam.

### Claim 46 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, wherein the hardware-readable data structure further comprises an accumulation dose matrix.

### Claim 47 (depends on 22)

A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising generating a first seed plane from a first portion of a tissue matrix and a second seed plane from a second portion of the tissue matrix.

### Claim 48 (depends on 47)

A method as defined in claim 47, further comprising invoking a collapsed cone convolution/superposition algorithm with the first and second seed planes.

### Claim 49 (depends on 1)

A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising a non-transient computer-readable media having stored thereon instructions for causing the plurality of deposit engines to perform the steps of calculating the at least one radiation dose by:
receiving an indication of total energy per unit mass (TERMA) associated with an interaction point;
determining whether at least one voxel includes a non-zero TERMA; and
ray-tracing the at least one voxel when the at least one voxel includes the non-zero TERMA.

### Claim 50 (depends on 49)

A method as defined in claim 49, wherein ray-tracing comprises at least one of an x-axis direction, a y-axis direction, or a z-axis direction.

### Claim 51 (depends on 50)

A method as defined in claim 50, wherein the at least one of the x-axis direction, the y-axis direction, or the z-axis direction is stored in at least one of a plurality of memory blocks.

### Claim 52 (depends on 51)

A method as defined in claim 51, further comprising accessing the at least one of the plurality of memory blocks in parallel.

### Claim 53 (depends on 49)

A method as defined in claim 49, the controller further comprising at least one of calculating a distribution of primary energy particles via a primary energy calculator, or
calculating a distribution of secondary energy particles via a scatter energy calculator; and
invoking the controller to calculate at least one of the distribution of primary energy particles via the primary energy calculator or the distribution of secondary energy particles via the scatter energy calculator.