Monte Carlo characterization of an ytterbium-169 high dose rate brachytherapy source with analysis of statistical uncertainty

An ytterbium-169 high dose rate brachytherapy source, distinguished by an intensity-weighted average photon energy of 92.7 keV and a 32.015 +/- 0.009 day half-life, is characterized in terms of the updated AAPM Task Group Report No. 43 specifications using the MCNP5 Monte Carlo computer code. In accordance with these specifications, the investigation included Monte Carlo simulations both in water and air with the in-air photon spectrum filtered to remove low-energy photons below 10 keV. TG-43 dosimetric data including S-K, D(r, theta), Lambda, g(L)(r), F(r, theta), theta(an)(r), and phi(an) were calculated and statistical uncertainties in these parameters were derived and calculated in the appendix. (c) 2006 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.