• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권3호
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• pp.239-250
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• 2006

Computational anthropomorphic phantoms are computer models of human anatomy used in the calculation of radiation dose distribution in the human body upon exposure to a radiation source. Depending on the manner to represent human anatomy, they are categorized into two classes: stylized and tomographic phantoms. Stylized phantoms, which have mainly been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), describe human anatomy by using simple mathematical equations of analytical geometry. Several improved stylized phantoms such as male and female adults, pediatric series, and enhanced organ models have been developed following the first hermaphrodite adult stylized phantom, Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD)-5 phantom. Although stylized phantoms have significantly contributed to dosimetry calculation, they provide only approximations of the true anatomical features of the human body and the resulting organ dose distribution. An alternative class of computational phantom, the tomographic phantom, is based upon three-dimensional imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and computed tomography (CT). The tomographic phantoms represent the human anatomy with a large number of voxels that are assigned tissue type and organ identity. To date, a total of around 30 tomographic phantoms including male and female adults, pediatric phantoms, and even a pregnant female, have been developed and utilized for realistic radiation dosimetry calculation. They are based on MRI/CT images or sectional color photos from patients, volunteers or cadavers. Several investigators have compared tomographic phantoms with stylized phantoms, and demonstrated the superiority of tomographic phantoms in terms of realistic anatomy and dosimetry calculation. This paper summarizes the history and current status of both stylized and tomographic phantoms, including Korean computational phantoms. Advantages, limitations, and future prospects are also discussed.

• 한국전산구조공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전산구조공학회 2010년도 정기 학술대회
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• pp.207-210
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• 2010

This paper presents an method, called the phantom-node method, for representing discontinuities in shell structures. By decomposing an element completely cut by a crack into two overlapped elements special treatment of the MITC3 shell element to overcome "locking phenomenon" is straightforward. Two numerical examples are provided.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권8호
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• pp.3210-3223
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• 2024

International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recently developed the adult and pediatric meshtype reference computational phantoms (MRCPs) in high-quality/fidelity mesh format, featuring high deformability into various body sizes and poses. Utilizing this feature, the adult MRCPs-based body-size-dependent phantom library was developed for individualized dosimetry. To complete the full phantom library set, the present study produced the pediatric-MRCPs-based body-size-dependent pediatric phantom library. The library comprises a total of 637 phantoms (356 males and 281 females) with varying standing heights and body weights, covering a wide range of body sizes (i.e., including from 1st to 99th percentile height and weight values) for infants, children, and adolescents, offering a realistic representation of body shapes by reflecting ten secondary anthropometric parameters. The phantoms were automatically constructed utilizing automatic deformation program. The dosimetric impact of the library was investigated by calculating organ doses for external exposures to broad parallel photon beams in anterior-posterior direction. Compared with the values of the pediatric MRCPs, significant differences were observed at energies <0.05 MeV, showing larger values for underweight phantom and smaller values for obese phantom. The results highlight the importance of using the pediatric phantom library for accurate dose estimates of individual children with various body sizes.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제43권6호
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• pp.443-451
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• 2020

This study is to evaluate absorbed dose from right lung for brachytherapy and to estimate the effects of tissue heterogeneities on dose distribution for Iridium-192 source using Monte Carlo simulation. The study employed Geant4 code as Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the dosimetry parameters. The dose distribution of Iridium-192 source in solid water equivalent phantom including aluminium plate or steel plate inserted was calculated and compared with the measured dose by the ion chamber at various distances. And the simulation was used to evaluate the dose of gamma radiation absorbed in the lung organ and other organs around it. The dose distribution embedded in right lung was calculated due to the presence of heart, thymus, spine, stomach as well as left lung. The geometry of the human body was made up of adult male MIRD type of the computational human phantom. The dosimetric characteristics obtained for aluminium plate inserted were in good agreement with experimental results within 4%. The simulation results of steel plate inserted agreed well with a maximum difference 2.75%. Target organ considered to receive a dose of 100%, the surrounding organs were left the left lung of 3.93%, heart of 10.04%, thymus of 11.19%, spine of 12.64% and stomach of 0.95%. When the statistical error is performed for the computational human phantom, the statistical error of value is under 1%.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.197-203
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• 2023

Background: The thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) and Monte Carlo (MC) dosimetry are carried out to determine the occupational dose for personnel in the handling of ¹²⁵I seed sources. Materials and Methods: TLDs were placed in different layers of the Alderson-Rando phantom in the thyroid, lung and also eyes and skin surface. An ¹²⁵I seed source was prepared and its activity was measured using a dose calibrator and was placed at two distances of 20 and 50 cm from the Alderson-Rando phantom. In addition, the Monte Carlo N-Particle Extended (MCNPX 2.6.0) code and a computational phantom with a lattice-based geometry were used for organ dose calculations. Results and Discussion: The comparison of TLD and MC results in the thyroid and lung is consistent. Although the relative difference of MC dosimetry to TLD for the eyes was between 4% and 13% and for the skin between 19% and 23%, because of the existence of a higher uncertainty regarding TLD positioning in the eye and skin, these inaccuracies can also be acceptable. The isodose distribution was calculated in the cross-section of the head phantom when the ¹²⁵I seed was at two distances of 20 and 50 cm and it showed that the greatest dose reduction was observed for the eyes, skin, thyroid, and lungs, respectively. The results of MC dosimetry indicated that for near the head positions (distance of 20 cm) the absorbed dose rates for the eye lens, eye and skin were 78.1±2.3, 59.0±1.8, and 10.7±0.7 µGy/mCi/hr, respectively. Furthermore, we found that a 30 cm displacement for the ¹²⁵I seed reduced the eye and skin doses by at least 3- and 2-fold, respectively. Conclusion: Using a computational phantom to monitor the dose to the sensitive organs (eye and skin) for personnel involved in the handling of ¹²⁵I seed sources can be an accurate and inexpensive method.

• 한국의학물리학회지:의학물리
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.172-179
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• 2022

Recently, tetrahedral phantoms have been newly adopted as international standard mesh-type reference computational phantoms (MRCPs) by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and a program has been developed to convert them to computational tomography images and DICOM-RT structure files for application of radiotherapy. Through this program, the use of the tetrahedral standard phantom has become available in clinical practice, but utilization has been difficult due to various library dependencies requiring a lot of time and effort for installation. To overcome this limitation, in this study a newly developed TET2DICOM-GUI, a TET2DICOM program based on a graphical user interface (GUI), was programmed using only the MATLAB language so that it can be used without additional library installation and configuration. The program runs in the same order as TET2DICOM and has been optimized to run on a personal computer in a GUI environment. A tetrahedron-based male international standard human phantom, MRCP-AM, was used to evaluate TET2DICOM-GUI. Conversion into a DICOM-RT dataset applicable in clinical practice in about one hour with a personal computer as a basis was confirmed. Also, the generated DICOM-RT dataset was confirmed to be effectively implemented in the radiotherapy planning system. The program developed in this study is expected to replace actual patient data in future studies.

• 환경생물
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.387-391
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• 2006

Manchester system 타입의 장착기중 상, 하부에 차폐체가 장착되어 있는 Henschke 장착기를 이용하여 자궁암 근접치료시 자궁 및 주변장기의 선량분포를 평가하기 위하여 치료계획수립에 사용되는 실용프로그램 결과와 몬테칼로 모의계산 결과를 비교하였다. 또한 자궁 및 주변 정상조직이 받은 선량을 계산하기 위해 ORNL(Oak Ridge National Laboratory)에서 수립한 여성의 MIRD (Medical Internal Radiation Dose)형 모의피폭체를 이용 하여 주변장기가 받는 선량을 MCNP로 계산하였다. 몬테칼로 모사에는 MCNP 4B코드를 사용하였으며, 실용계산프로그램에는 GAMMADOT를 이용하였다 MCNP계산에는 $^{192}Ir$ 선원과 장착기의 기하학적 모양을 정밀하게 모사하여 계산 오차를 줄이도록 하였으며, 치료계획용 실용계산프로그램의 계산 조건과 동일하게 치료선원의 강내 체류시간과 체류위치를 적용하여 선량을 계산하였다. 주요 선량 비교 평가점은 Manchester system에서 사용되는 4곳과 ICRU 38에서 Manchester system을 보완하기 위해 제시한 방광표면 및 직장이였다. 실용계산 결과는 MCNP모의계산의 결과와 비교했을 때 대부분 위치에서 상대오차 4% 이내의 결과를 보였고, 난형체의 차폐체 장착효과로 인한 방광과 직장에서의 선량감쇠효과는 각각 19%, 20%였다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권11호
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• pp.4019-4025
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• 2023

Recently, a new monkey computational phantom, called Visible Monkey, was developed for non-ionizing radiation studies in animal research. In this study, we extended its applications to ionizing radiation studies by implementing the voxel model of the Visible Monkey into three general-purpose Monte Carlo (MC) codes: MCNP6, PHITS, and Geant4. The implementation work for MCNP and PHITS was conducted using the LATTICE, UNIVERSE, and FILL cards. The G4VNestedParameterisation class was used for Geant4. Then, organ dose coefficients (DCs) for idealized photon beams in the antero-posterior direction were calculated using the three codes and compared, showing excellent agreement (differences <3%). Additionally, organ DCs in other directions (postero-anterior, left-lateral, and right-lateral) were calculated and compared with those of the newborn and 1-year-old reference phantoms. Significant differences were observed (e.g., the stomach DC of the monkey was 5-fold greater than that of the 1-year-old phantom at 0.03 MeV) while the differences tended to decrease with increasing energy (mostly <20% at 10 MeV). The results of this study allows conducting MC simulations using the Visible Monkey to estimate organ-level doses, which should be valuable to support/improve monkey experiments involving ionizing radiation exposures.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.111-133
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• 2022

The exciting advancement related to the "modeling of digital human" in terms of a computational phantom for radiation dose calculations has to do with the latest hype related to deep learning. The advent of deep learning or artificial intelligence (AI) technology involving convolutional neural networks has brought an unprecedented level of innovation to the field of organ segmentation. In addition, graphics processing units (GPUs) are utilized as boosters for both real-time Monte Carlo simulations and AI-based image segmentation applications. These advancements provide the feasibility of creating three-dimensional (3D) geometric details of the human anatomy from tomographic imaging and performing Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations using increasingly fast and inexpensive computers. This review first introduces the history of three types of computational human phantoms: stylized medical internal radiation dosimetry (MIRD) phantoms, voxelized tomographic phantoms, and boundary representation (BREP) deformable phantoms. Then, the development of a person-specific phantom is demonstrated by introducing AI-based organ autosegmentation technology. Next, a new development in GPU-based Monte Carlo radiation dose calculations is introduced. Examples of applying computational phantoms and a new Monte Carlo code named ARCHER (Accelerated Radiation-transport Computations in Heterogeneous EnviRonments) to problems in radiation protection, imaging, and radiotherapy are presented from research projects performed by students at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Finally, this review discusses challenges and future research opportunities. We found that, owing to the latest computer hardware and AI technology, computational human body models are moving closer to real human anatomy structures for accurate radiation dose calculations.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.97-104
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• 2006

최근 방사선 치료 및 진단 분야에서 선량 측정을 위하여 다양하게 사용되고 있는 MOSFET 선량계는 검출부위가 실리콘으로 이루어져 있으며 다른 검출기들과 마찬가지로 어느 정도의 에너지 의존도와 방향 의존도를 보인다. 따라서 MOSFET 선량제가 공기 중이 아닌 모의피폭체 내에서 선량 측정에 사용될 경우 낮은 에너지를 갖는 산란 광자 등 이차 광자들로 인하여 선량을 실제보다. 높게 평가하게 된다. 본 연구에서는 MOSFET 선량계의 에너지 의존도와 방향 의존도로 인하여 발생하는 오차를 보정하기 위한 선량보정인자를 몬테카를로 전산모사 기법을 이용하여 계산하였다. 먼저 사용되는 인형 모의 피폭체의 체적소 모의피폭체(Voxel Phanom)를 CT 영상을 이용하여 제작하였으며 제작된 체적소 모의 피폭체를 몬테카를로 전산코드로 구현한 후, 모의피폭체 내 각 선량계 지점에서 입사하는 광자의 에너지 및 방향별 에너지 스펙트럼을 계산하였다. 각각의 선량계 지점에서 0.662 MeV와 1.25 MeV의 광자빔을 고려하였으며 또한 MOSFET 선량계의 방향은 실리콘 베이스 방향과 에폭시 방향을 고려하였다. 주어진 선량제 지점에서의 선량보정인자는 계산된 에너지 의존도들의 중간간을 이용하여 결정하였으며 이렇게 결정된 각 선량계 지점에서 선량보정인자는 0.89-0.97 범위의 값들을 나타내었다. 본 연구결과에 따르면 MOSFET 선량계를 이용하여 인형 모의피폭체 내에 선량을 측정할 때 에너지 의존도와 방향 의존도를 고려하지 않을 경우 측정 위치에 따라 $3{\sim}11%$ 정도의 측정오차가 발생할 수 있다. 그러므로 인형 모의피폭체 내의 선량을 정확하게 측정하기 위해서는 선량보정인자를 각 선량계에 필히 적용해주어야 한다.