USE OF THE VIP-MAN MODEL TO CALCULATE ENERGY IMPARTED AND EFFECTIVE DOSE FOR X-RAY EXAMINATIONS

Abstract— A male human tomographic model was used to calculate values of energy imparted (&egr;) and effective dose (E) for monoenergetic photons (30–150 keV) in radiographic examinations. Energy deposition in the organs and tissues of the human phantom were obtained using Monte Carlo simulations. Values of E/&egr; were obtained for three common projections [anterior-posterior (AP), posterior-anterior (PA), and lateral (LAT)] of the head, cervical spine, chest, and abdomen, respectively. For head radiographs, all three projections yielded similar E/&egr; values. At 30 keV, the value of E/&egr; was ∼1.6 mSv J−1, which is increased to ∼7 mSv J−1 for 150 keV photons. The AP cervical spine was the only projection investigated where the value of E/&egr; decreased with increasing photon energy. Above 70 keV, cervical spine E/&egr; values showed little energy dependence and ranged between ∼8.5 mSv J−1 for PA projections and ∼17 mSv J−1 for AP projections. The values of E/&egr; for AP chest examinations showed very little variation with photon energy, and had values of ∼23 mSv J−1. Values of E/&egr; for PA and LAT chest projections were substantially lower than the AP projections and increased with increasing photon energy. For abdominal radiographs, differences between the PA and LAT projections were very small. All abdomen projections showed an increase in the E/&egr; ratio with increasing photon energy, and reached a maximum value of ∼13.5 mSv J−1 for AP projections, and ∼9.5 mSv J−1 for PA/lateral projections. These monoenergetic E/&egr; values can generate values of E/&egr; for any x-ray spectrum, and can be used to convert values of energy imparted into effective dose for patients undergoing common head and body radiological examinations.

[1]  J. F. Briesmeister.  MCNP-A General Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code , 1993 .

[2]  W Huda,et al.  Computation of energy imparted in diagnostic radiology. , 1997, Medical physics.

[3]  Mary Jane C. Edwards Rn Ba Ba Bsn Cnor.  Atlas of the Visible Human Male , 1998 .

[4]  John M. Boone,et al.  Optimizing the x-ray photon energy for digital radiographic imaging systems , 2002, SPIE Medical Imaging.

[5]  A. Bozkurt,et al.  VIP-MAN: AN IMAGE-BASED WHOLE-BODY ADULT MALE MODEL CONSTRUCTED FROM COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE VISIBLE HUMAN PROJECT FOR MULTI-PARTICLE MONTE CARLO CALCULATIONS , 2000, Health physics.

[6]  X. Xu,et al.  Fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients based on the VIP-Man anatomical model and MCNPX code for monoenergetic neutrons above 20 MeV. , 2001, Health physics.

[7]  B. Wall,et al.  Organ Doses from Medical X-Ray Examinations Calculated Using Monte Carlo Techniques , 1985 .

[8]  W Huda,et al.  Radiation dosimetry for extremity radiographs. , 1998, Health physics.

[9]  A. Warshel.  Monte Carlo Calculations , 2002 .

[10]  S. Mattsson,et al.  On the calculation of effective dose to children and adolescents , 1996 .

[11]  J. V. Atherton,et al.  Energy imparted and effective doses in computed tomography. , 1996, Medical physics.

[12]  D. Rogers,et al.  EGS4 code system , 1985 .

[13]  X. Xu,et al.  Organ dose conversion coefficients for 0.1-10 MeV electrons calculated for the VIP-Man tomographic model. , 2001, Health physics.

[14]  I. George Zubal,et al.  Voxel based Monte Carlo calculations of nuclear medicine images and applied variance reduction techniques , 1992, Image Vis. Comput..

[15]  W Huda.  Radiation dosimetry in diagnostic radiology. , 1997, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[16]  I. McCall,et al.  Dose-area product readings for fluoroscopic and plain film examinations, including an analysis of the source of variation for barium enema examinations. , 1998, The British journal of radiology.

[17]  X. Xu,et al.  Conversion coefficients based on the VIP-Man anatomical model and EGS4. , 2001, Health physics.

[18]  D. G. Jones.  A Realistic Anthropomorphic Phantom for Calculating Organ Doses Arising from External Photon Irradiation , 1997 .

[19]  Nina Petoussi-Henss,et al.  The GSF family of voxel phantoms , 2002, Physics in medicine and biology.

[20]  Stephen Balter,et al.  Comparison of four techniques to estimate radiation dose to skin during angiographic and interventional radiology procedures. , 2002, Journal of vascular and interventional radiology : JVIR.

[21]  X. Xu,et al.  Specific absorbed fractions from the image-based VIP-Man body model and EGS4-VLSI Monte Carlo code: internal electron emitters. , 2001, Physics in medicine and biology.

[22]  E. Vañó,et al.  Dosimetric and radiation protection considerations based on some cases of patient skin injuries in interventional cardiology. , 1998, The British journal of radiology.

[23]  Qu Liang,et al.  The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation , 1965, Nature.

[24]  W Huda,et al.  Effective dose and energy imparted in diagnostic radiology. , 1997, Medical physics.

[25]  C H McCollough,et al.  Calculation of effective dose. , 2000, Medical physics.

[26]  D. Dance,et al.  Use of the concept of energy imparted in diagnostic radiology. , 1999, Applied radiation and isotopes : including data, instrumentation and methods for use in agriculture, industry and medicine.

[27]  Icrp.  Human Respiratory Tract Model for Radiological Protection , 1994 .