Dragon Technologies Brachytherapy Healthcare, Urological & Surgical Solutions for the UK NHS & Private Sector

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The LDR brachytherapy treatment planning software PSID (Permanent Seed Implant Dosimetry) for ultrasound guided radiation therapy of prostate cancer developed by sonoTECH since 1998 is used for treatment planning at numerous sites in Europe and beyond. The use of advanced 3D visualization techniques allows an overview of the planning results at unsurpassed speed and flexibility.

PSID - Brachytherapy Planning Screen Shot Exact dosimetry even with different seed types

The planning is based on sequence of ultrasound images which are loaded into the program either by the integrated real time frame grabber, through a network (DICOM TCP/IP) or from file. After contouring the organs with the mouse, the program calculates the optimum seed distribution depending on the desired dose levels in a few seconds. Alternatively a partially edited seed distribution may be completed automatically or the complete seed distribution may be placed manually. Isodoses are updated immediately.

PSID will automatically calculate the dose volume histogram, the differential dose distribution, the natural dose volume histogram, the needle loading plan and all other data required for evaluating the quality of the dose distribution.

Postplanning using DICOM images in 2D mode

Transparent 3D presentation of the prostate allows viewing the seed distribution

Based on the organ contours PSID will calculate 3D views from any desired viewing angle. The organ structures may be rotated in any direction. Select the organs to be displayed with a mouse click. Choose whether the seeds and / or needles should also be displayed. Naturally, selected isodose surfaces will be displayed in 3D as well, if desired.

Slice the 3D structures in any direction to see where the seeds are located, for example. Choose the transparency / opacity of each organs you look right through the surface and see what is behind. The 3D color-coded surface dose feature allows easy detection of hot spots at organ surfaces.

The needle loading plan is the essential for seed placement. The plan describes how to load the needles with seeds, where to position the needles and how deep the needles are to be inserted into the prostate. If it is desired to place the seeds at intermediate positions this will also be displayed.

The 3D-Isodosis of a single seed shows the correct consideration of the anisotropy

Manual and Auto placement support single seeds as well as strands.

Ease of operation and quick response times in combination with reliable seed auto placement and seed finding features allow performing the complete planning job in an unsurpassed short time period.

Please contact us if you would like to receive more information on our products. We will be happy to arrange a presentation, even at your site.

Laptop Configuration Example

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo™ T5600 (1.83 GHz/ 2 MB/ FSB667 Merom 64 Bit)
1 GByte DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz
Harddisk 100 GB, S-ATA 5.400 U/min
DVD ±RW
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256 MB VRAM
1680 x 1050 WSXGA+ Widescreen Display 17"
Real Time Video Frame Grabber (PAL 50 Hz: 768 x 576 pixel / NTSC 60 Hz: 640 x 480 pixel )
Fast Ethernet Card
Microsoft™ Windows™ XP Professional Operating System (Service Pack 2)
Color Printer

laptop configuration

3D: Online rotation in any direction

3D: the 145 Gy Isodose is displayed in red, prostate in green, rectum in blue

3D: with the 145 Gy Isodose surface sliced open and the prostate in semi transparent mode

3D: with the 145 Gy Isodose surface sliced open and the urethra in yellow

3D: color coded surface of the prostate

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Summary of PSID Version 4.1.0 features:

Image acquisition on the PC is available through frame grabber, floppy disk, CD-ROM, DICOM network, etc.

Up to 20 different image formats supported: DICOM, BMP, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, PCX, etc.

DICOM 3.0 TCP/IP network interface

Prowess™-Import of complete studies

Co-registration (i.e. planning based on images of various origin) of two image sequences with up to 128 images per sequence.

Algorithms and data for all common seed / strand types are included or can easily be added by the build-in seed editor.

Easy manual contouring of anatomical structures with the computer mouse

Interpolation of missing contours on intermediate slices

Simple positioning of single seeds or Strands with a mouse click on the template grid or on a finer grid

Automatic placement results of seeds and strands are unsurpassed by manual editing

Interactive Online Planning during implantation based on transversal and longitudinal real live ultrasound images (25 frames per second) even on Laptops - the exact needle and seed positions can be used for online correction of the further treatment

An incomplete partial placement of seeds and strands that was manually edited can be completed automatically by the incremental automatic placement feature.

Complies to the current AAPM TG-43 recommendations dated March 2004. Accurate point and line source modeling of the seed anisotropy was implemented. Until then due to the spherical modeling in conventional programs a typically 10% higher dose rate than calculated was applied in the urethra.

Real-time calculation of isodoses during seed / strand positioning.

Simultaneous application of seeds with different activities in one study

Immediate calculation of local dose at cursor position

Standard template geometries and customer templates are selectable

Visualization of calculation results in 2D and 3D

2D isodoses and seed display in sagittal and coronal direction

3D isodoses and seed display, 3D organ surface depiction based on the manually drawn contour

User definable, comprehensive report in color, consisting of up to 50 pages in letter format including: Seed data, patient data, needle loading plan, isodoses, doses volume histograms, histogram parameters, etc. The report may be previewed before printing.

Image Fusion between Ultrasound-, MR and CT images for easier contouring during post planning

Newly developed automatic seed detecting algorithm for post planning based on CT-images dramatically reduces the time required to create post plans

Simple scaling of template size and position

User configurable in regards to contouring, displayed isodose lines, seeds, and others

Multilingual operator interface in English and German (Other languages on request).

Needle loading display and edit feature for the selected needle

The amount of calculation points used for the determination of the histograms is user definable independently for screen and report. These calculation points are distributed on a three-dimensional hexagonal grid to achieve a homogeneous filling of the structure.

"Needle's-Eye-View" for oblique image planes enable image plane independent planning in any direction.

Image Fusion between image sequences at any angle

Conformal Index COIN

Natural Dose Volume Histogram (NDVH) Natural Prescription Dose (NPD) and Natural Dose Ratio (NDR)

Stepper position encoder support for automated acquisition of image sequences and automated tracking of longitudinal plane in online planning.

Multithreading (parallel processing) support: Increasing the execution speed on computers with Dual Core™ processors by a factor of two.

Copy protected by USB Dongle, installation on several computers possible with only one license

Intuitive operator guidance

Build-in context sensitive online help, i.e. for any object of the software the related chapter of the help manual appears after pressing function key [F1].