Amorphous magnetic wires for medical locator applications

This letter evaluates the feasibility for implanting short segments of Barkhausen wires in treatment volumes of patients requiring radiation therapy. Such locating of deep-seated sites prior to each treatment is not done routinely or is usually achieved through imaging with ionizing radiations. Present therapeutic procedures can result in substantial heterogeneities in the dose distributions or significant doses to surrounding normal tissues, resulting in poorer control of the tumors and/or increased complications. The implants make it possible to accurately locate the wire by way of re-entrant flux measurements, and hence, pinpoint the treatment volume prior to and during treatment. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.