Tomotherapy archive structure and new software tool for loading and advanced analysis of data contained in it

AimThe main objective of the study was to analyze the structure of data contained in the archives exported from a tomotherapy treatment planning system. An additional aim was to create an application equipped with a user-friendly interface to enable automatic reading of files and data analysis, also using external algorithms. Analyses had to include image registration, dose deformation and summation.Materials and methodsFiles from the archive exported from the tomotherapy treatment planning system (TPS) were analyzed. Two programs were used to analyze the information contained in the archive files: XML Viewer by MindFusion Limited and HxD hex editor by Maël Hora. To create an application enabling loading and analyzing the data, Matlab by MathWorks, version R2009b, was used.ResultsArchive exported from the TPS is a directory with several files. It contains three types of data: .xml, .img and .sin. Tools available in Matlab offer great opportunities for analysis and transformation of loaded information. Proposed application automates the loading of necessary information and simplifies data handling. Furthermore, the application is equipped with a graphical user interface (GUI). The main application window contains buttons for opening the archives and analyzing the loaded data.ConclusionThe analysis of data contained in the archive exported from the tomotherapy treatment planning system allowed to determine the way and place of saving information of our interest, such as tomography images, structure sets and dose distributions. This enabled us to develop and optimize methods of loading and analyzing this information.