Explicit field shaping of the beam is required to reduce the amount of healthy tissue irradiated, and multiple beams are used to lower the dose absorbed by tissue outside the target volume.[2] It is achieved through high-precision selleck chemicals and high-gradient dose irradiation techniques. Stereotactic treatment of brain metastases treated in a single session is the most significant example of this kind of approach. However, stereotactic radiation therapy is usually employed to treat lesions with a diameter smaller than 35 mm and an extremely simple

shape.[3,4] Among the shaping systems that are used to match the radiation field against the contour of target volume, can be mentioned to multileaf collimator (MLC). MLC has movable leaves, or shields, which can shield some fraction of the radiation beam; typical MLCs have 20-120 leaves, arranged in pairs. By using a computer control to position a large narrow, closely abutting leaves, an arbitrary shaped field

can be generated.[2] There are many researchers to design a computer-controlled MLC system[5,6,7] and the effects on patient dose.[8,9] Design and construction stages of our prototype MLC included the following sections: Mechanics,[10,11] image processing of CT slices[12] and control.[13] This article explains the control process of our MLC design and fabrication. The design of an alternative control section of MLC system that allows a high precision shaping of large fields is also presented in this article. In comparison with other MLC system that is controlled by the microcontroller,[14] this system is controlled precisely and easily by programmable

logic controllers (PLCs) and can be improved in future studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS The MLC system consists of 52 leaves, 52 stepper motors,[15] 2 DC motors,[16] 16 PLCs[17] and one human machine interface (HMI).[17] Figure 1 schematically shows the flow diagrams used in MLC system designed. Figure 1 Schematic diagram of multileaf collimator system The specifications and functions of this prototype MLC prototype be described as following: Mechanical Part In the research phase of this study, aluminum alloy was used for the construction of leaves AV-951 as the material of choice because of its low machining cost. The collimating device is made up of two opposing banks of 26 pairs of leaves 5 cm in height, 20 cm in length and 1 cm in width. The projected width of each leaf and the maximum field size on the isocenter of a Varian linear accelerator can be 10 mm and 26 cm × 40 cm, respectively. The 52 leaves (26 per side) are mounted on two carriages that are moved independently, to extend their movements across the radiation field. The leaves ends move perpendicular to the beam’s central axis and have parallel design.[12] The top view of the designed MLC is shown in Figure 2.