Influence of saccharides on the dosimetric properties of PVA-GTA Fricke gels

The Fricke gels (FG) composition has been modified over the years in order to improve their dosimetric characteristic for spatial dose evaluation in radiotherapy. Some problems have limited the clinical use of FG and still represent significant challenges for the scientific community working in the field of gel dosimetry. With this study, the effects of saccharides like sucrose and glucose on the dosimetric properties of Fricke gels based on poly(vinyl-alcohol) (PVA) as gelling agent and glutaraldehyde (GTA) as cross-linker have been tested. The dose-response curves of PVA-GTA Fricke gel dosimeters prepared using different sucrose and glucose concentrations were investigated by optical absorbance measurements. The shape of the optical absorbance spectra of the gel dosimeters in the wavelength interval 360–720 nm have shown a slight dependence on the saccharides concentration and varied with the absorbed dose. The results demonstrated that the use of different concentrations of sucrose and glucose does not produce significant dosimetric consequences in the interval of linearity (0–16 Gy) of the dose-response curve of the PVA-GTA Fricke gel dosimeters.