Modulation index for VMAT considering both mechanical and dose calculation uncertainties.

The aim of this study is to present a modulation index considering both mechanical and dose calculation uncertainties for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). As a modulation index considering only mechanical uncertainty of VMAT, MIt has been previously suggested. In this study, we developed a weighting factor which represents dose calculation uncertainty based on the aperture shapes of fluence maps at every control point of VMAT plans. In order to calculate the weighting factor, the thinning algorithm of image processing techniques was applied to measure field aperture irregularity. By combining this weighting factor with the previously suggested modulation index, MIt, comprehensive modulation index (MIc) was designed. To evaluate the performance of MIc, gamma passing rates, differences in mechanical parameters between plans and log files and differences in dose-volume parameters between plans and the plans reconstructed from log files were acquired with a total of 52 VMAT plans. Spearman's correlation coefficients (rs) between the values of MIc and measures of VMAT delivery accuracy were calculated. The rs values of MIc (f = 0.5) to global gamma passing rates with 2%/2 mm, 1%/2 mm and 2%/1 mm were  -0.728,-0.847 and  -0.617, respectively (p  <  0.001). Those to local gamma passing rates were  -0.765,-0.767 and  -0.748, respectively (p  <  0.001). The rs values of MIc (f = 0.5) to multi-leaf collimator and gantry angle errors were 0.800 and  -0.712, respectively (p  <  0.001). The MIc (f = 0.5) showed a total of 20 rs values (p  <  0.05) to the differences in dose-volumetric parameters from a total of 35 tested cases. The MIc (f = 0.5) demonstrated considerable power to predict VMAT delivery accuracy showing strong correlations to various measures of VMAT delivery accuracy.