Use of an Analog Computer to Calculate Treatment Dose for Multiple Fields

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Abstract
Analog methods of dose calculation have been proposed, with mechanical, optical, and electrical means of generating the dose distribution function (1). A commercial device now available and marketed under the trade name “Bivar”3 facilitates the use of analog computers for dose calculations. This device uses a resistive plate on which lines may be drawn in silver ink to represent the dose at intervals of 5 to 10 per cent. These lines are maintained at electrical potentials proportional to the dose. The resistive material produces a potential at intermediate points related to dose by the same proportionality factor. A metallic probe moved over the plate in the X–Y direction by a servomechanism picks up the potential to generate the dose as a function of two variables. As a first test of the system, the bivariant function generator and a curve plotter were hooked together through a servo loop to reproduce isodose curves for a single field of 2-Mev x-rays. It was found that isodose curves for any desired dose...

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