Heather Maurer March 1st, 2014 Article Comparison Part 1 Trade Publication Article Review A trade publication is an informal

writing published for a broad audience1. Often these articles do not go into as much depth as those of a professional journal. Articles for a trade publication can consist of stories from clinicians in the field or information gathered by staff. For this paper I chose an article from the trade publication, Radiology Today Magazine. The article titled, Improving Pediatric X-Ray Protocols by David Yeager, was in the February 2014 edition Volume 15 No. 2. This article discussed a recently developed checklist for pediatric x-ray protocols and how it was developed. It also discussed who the checklist was designed for, some things that were thought to be common knowledge, and different techniques that can affect exposure2. The main goal of the article was to promote pediatric x-ray safety. It explained that a trail version of this checklist could be obtained as well as how the checklist could be used to collect data and create your own database2. I did find this article interesting but Im not sure that it would be extremely helpful to me at this stage in my career. If the checklist carried over to CT and MRI like the article mentioned towards the end I feel like this may help medical dosimetrists by having better quality images to plan off of. This could be extremely useful for radiation oncology departs who see few children and complete their own in department scans. The viewpoint of the author seemed very clear and I felt I understood where he was headed and what he was hoping to accomplish with his plans. The fact that he had the checklist piloted at a childrens hospital and then refined with their feedback shows a great desire to make this checklist accurate and user friendly. I also really like how the article explained who the checklist would be focused towards. Just because the checklist is for pediatrics doesnt mean pediatric departments was the focus, its focus is to help those who dont do pediatric imaging as often and who could use a refresher on proper imaging techniques. The article mentions that there is a downloadable trial version of this checklist and it also discusses several formats it may be printed in, but it didnt tell you where to go to find this trial. There are no real specifics or examples of what is in this checklist so it leaves the reader wondering about the details and nowhere to look for more information.

References
1

Lenards N., Weege M. Radiation Therapy and Medical Dosimetry Reading. [Powerpoint]. La Crosse, WI: UW-L Medical Dosimetry Program; 2014.
2

Yeager D. Improving pediatric x-ray protocols. Radiology Today Magazine. 2014; 15(2): 6

Part 2 Review of Peer Reviewed Research Article A peer reviewed research article is quite different from an article in a trade publication. These articles are formal writings often published in professional or scholarly journals1. They are directed to more of a professional audience employed in the specific field included in their research1. These types of articles strive for answers or propose debate amongst professional issues using statistical methods. Such an article came out in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics titled Prostate Bed Motion during Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy Treatment by Tracy Klayton, MD, Robert Price, PhD, Mark K Buyyounouski, MD, MS, Mark Sobczak, MD, Richard Greenberg, MD, Jinsheng Li, PhD, Lanea Keller, MD, Dennis Sopka, MD, Alexander Kutikov, MD, and Eric Horwitz, MD in September 2013. This article tackled the issue of prostate bed movement during radiation therapy treatments using the Calypso 4D localization System2. The article explained how conformal radiation treatments can provide excellent coverage with significant sparing of critical structures2. It also stressed that fact that doing this relies heavily on precise daily set up including localization and alignment2. It has been documented, especially with intact prostates, that bladder and rectal filling and greatly affects the alignment. This variation in filling could also cause the clinical target volume to be off resulting in an under dose. For this particular research study twenty patients who received radiation therapy treatments to their prostate bed, guided by implanted electromagnetic transponders in correspondence with the Calypso 4D localization system were selected to analyze their recorded data. 680 treatment fractions were delivered and only 487 of those fractions had all of the data necessary to calculate the AUC (Area Under the Curve) for deviations in the x, y and z direction of the target2. Variables taken into consideration for this study were stability of Calypso beacons (implanted electromagnetic transponders), daily rotational offsets, setup, and real time tracking. Two patients experienced beacon loss during urinary voiding2. Daily rotational offsets varied widely over all axes, and 652 of 680 fractions appeared to have initial set up errors. Along with the real time tracking of the prostate bed during treatments the difference between Calypso and kV imaging was shown. Overall, at least one time during their course of treatment, 90% of patients exceeded the set threshold of 5mm2. The data was broken down into several subsets, trends and patterns were categorized and behaviors were noticed. The most common behavior was continuous drift with two thirds of these treatments interrupted for repositioning2. After reviewing the data it clearly shows that patient positioning is crucial for the accuracy in treatment of conformal radiation plans to the prostate bed. It also shows that the Calypso 4D localization system can aid in the continual alignment during a patients treatment.

References
1

Lenards N., Weege M. Radiation Therapy and Medical Dosimetry Reading. [Powerpoint]. La Crosse, WI: UW-L Medical Dosimetry Program; 2014
2

Klayton T, Price R, Buyyounouski MK, et al. Prostate bed motion during intensity modulated radiotherapy treatment. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics 2012; 84(1): 130-136