Diurnal variation of the distance between cranium and the third lumbar vertebra and its implications for craniospinal irradiation
The spine shortens during the day because of gravity. This study quantified the effect of treatment fraction timing on spinal length in 13 craniospinal irradiation patients. The distance deviation from the base of skull to the third lumbar vertebra in daily planar kilovoltage setup images compared to the treatment planning computed tomography image was determined. The time deviation between the treatment fraction and planning computed tomography image was registered. A distance decrease of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:mn>8</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:math> mm/hour was observed. Timing the treatment fractions within two hours of the planning imaging session is advisable to minimise the potential dosimetric impact of diurnal variations.
Authors
- Eeva Boman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6492-2475)
- Michiel Postema (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5887-1739)
- M Rossi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7920-2531)
- Annele Heikkilä (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5639-8765)
- Antti Vanhanen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8247-2887)
- Tuomas Koivumäki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8673-7000)
Institutions
- Tampere University of Applied Sciences (FI)
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- Pirkanmaa Hospital District (FI)
- Tampere University Hospital (FI)
- Tampere University (FI)
- Central Finland Health Care District (FI)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phro.2025.100760
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Radiotherapy Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00