Beam-blocking leaf and multileaf collimator containing same
AssigneeVarian Medical Systems International AG
InventorsRonan Rochford, Ari Harju, Juha Kauppinen, Timo Ikonen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A beam-blocking leaf includes a body portion and a head portion. The head portion is movable relative to the body portion, thereby allowing the end surface of the head portion to change an orientation relative to the body portion. A collimator including the beam-blocking leaf and a method of collimating a radiation beam using the collimator are also provided.
Claims20
A beam-blocking leaf comprising a body portion and a head portion including an end surface, wherein the head portion is movable relative to the body portion, thereby allowing the end surface of the head portion to change an orientation relative to the body portion.
A collimator, comprising:
- a first beam-blocking leaf and a second beam-blocking leaf arranged opposed to the first beam-blocking leaf, the first and second beam-blocking leaves being longitudinally movable relative to each other, wherein
- at least one of the first and second beam-blocking leaves comprises a body portion and a head portion including an end surface, the head portion being movable relative to the body portion, thereby allowing the end surface of the head portion to change an orientation relative to the body portion.
A method of collimating a radiation beam from a source, comprising:
- providing a multileaf collimator (MLC), wherein the MLC comprises:
- a plurality of beam-blocking leaves arranged side by side in a first bank, and a plurality of beam-blocking leaves arranged side by side in a second bank opposed to the first bank, wherein the plurality of beam-blocking leaves in the first bank are longitudinally movable relative to the plurality of beam-blocking leaves in the second bank, forming a plurality of pairs of beam-blocking leaves, wherein
- beam-blocking leaves of at least selected pairs of the plurality of pairs each comprises a body portion and a head portion, the head portion comprising an end surface and being movable relative to the body portion, thereby allowing the end surface of the head portion to change an orientation relative to the source;
- collimating the radiation beam by positioning the plurality of pairs of beam-blocking leaves in the radiation beam, wherein the positioning comprises adjusting the orientation of the end surface of the head portion of at least some of the selected pairs of beam-blocking leaves relative to the source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.