• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.221-225
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• 2007

Monte Carlo calculations were performed to demonstrate the dose modulation with dynamic magnetic fields in phantom. The goal of this study is to obtain the uniform dose distributions at a depth region as a target on the central axis of photon beam under moving transverse magnetic field. We have calculated the depth dose curves for two cases of moving magnetic field along a depth line, constant speed and optimal speed. We introduced step-by-step shift and time factor of the position of the electromagnet as an approximations of continuous moving. The optimal time factors as a function of magnetic field position were calculated by least square methods using depth dose data for static magnetic field. We have verified that the flat depth dose is produced by varying the speed of magnetic field as a function of position as a results of Monte Carlo calculations. For 3 T magnetic field, the dose enhancement was 10.1% in comparison to without magnetic field at the center of the target.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 2010

Emerging technologies such as four-dimensional computed tomography (4D CT) is expected to allow clinicians to accurately model interfractional motion and to quantitatively estimate internal target volumes (ITVs) for radiation therapy involving moving targets. A need exists for a 4D radiation therapy quality assurance (QA) device that can incorporate and analyze the patient specific intrafractional motion as it relate to dose delivery and respiratory gating. We built a 4D RT prototype device and analyzed the patient-specific 4D radiation therapy QA for 2D dose distributions successfully. With more improvements, the 4D RT QA prototype device could be an integral part of a 4D RT decision process to confirm the dose delivery.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 2013

Monte Carlo method has been known as the most accurate method for calculating absorbed dose in the human body, and an anthropomorphic phantom has been mainly used as a method of simulating internal organs for using such a calculation method. However, various efforts are made to extract data on several internal organs in the human body directly from CT DICOM files in recent Monte Carlo calculation using Geant4 code and to use by converting them into the geometry necessary for simulation. Such a function makes it possible to calculate the internal absorbed dose accurately while duplicating the actual human anatomical structure. Thus, this study calculated the absorbed dose in the human body by using Geant4 associating with DICOM files, and aimed to confirm the usefulness by compare the result with the measured dose using a Gafchromic EBT2 film. This study compared the dose calculated using simulation and the measured dose in beam central axis using the EBT2 film. The results showed that the range of difference was an average of 3.75% except for a build-up region, in which the dose rapidly changed from skin surface to the depth of maximum dose. In addition, this study made it easy to confirm the target absorbed dose by internal organ and organ through the output of the calculated value of dose by CT slice and the dose value of each voxel in each slice. Thus, the method that outputs dose value by slice and voxel through the use of CT DICOM, which is actual image data of human body, instead of the anthropomorphic phantom enables accurate dose calculations of various regions. Therefore, it is considered that it will be useful for dose calculation of radiotherapy planning system in the future. Moreover, it is applicable for currently-used several energy ranges in current use, so it is considered that it will be effectively used in order to check the radiation absorbed dose in the human body.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.181-189
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• 2017

The conventional delivery quality assurance (DQA) process for RapidArc (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, USA), has the limitation that it measures and analyzes the dose in a phantom material and cannot analyze the dosimetric changes under the motional organ condition. In this study, a DQA method was designed to overcome the limitations of the conventional DQA process for internal target volume (ITV) based RapidArc. The dynamic DQA measurement device was designed with a moving phantom that can simulate variable target motions. The dose distribution in the real volume of the target and organ-at-risk (OAR)s were reconstructed using 3DVH with the ArcCHECK (SunNuclear, Melbourne, USA) measurement data under the dynamic condition. A total of 10 ITV-based RapidArc plans for liver-cancer patients were analyzed with the designed dynamic DQA process. The average pass rate of gamma evaluation was $81.55{\pm}9.48%$ when the DQA dose was measured in the respiratory moving condition of the patient. Appropriate method was applied to correct the effect of moving phantom structures in the dose calculation, and DVH data of the real volume of target and OARs were created with the recalculated dose by the 3DVH program. We confirmed the valid dose coverage of a real target volume in the ITV-based RapidArc. The variable difference of the DVH of the OARs showed that dose variation can occur differently according to the location, shape, size and motion range of the target. The DQA process devised in this study can effectively evaluate the DVH of the real volume of the target and OARs in a respiratory moving condition in addition to the simple verification of the accuracy of the treatment machine. This can be helpful to predict the prognosis of treatment by the accurate dose analysis in the real target and OARs.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.305-311
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• 1989

Fletcher-Suit colpostat has an internal structure to reduce dose to bladder and rectum. Some programs were developed to calculate dose at any point in water in three dimension around the colpostat containing Cs-137 tube, to find the shielding effect to dose by the internal structure, and to draw isodose curves and iso-shielding effect curves. Computer was an IBM compatible AT with EGA card and language was MS-Basic V6.0, Material, shape and geometry of the strucure, tube and colpostat were considered in algorithm for calculation of dose. Dose rates per unit mg. Ra. eq. in water calculated by a program were stored in auxiliary memory devices and retrieved in another programs. Isodose curves on medial side shrinked. Dose distribution was not symmetric about a transverse axis bisecting the colpostat. Reduction of dose was more excessive on top side than on bottom. Iso-shielding effect curve showed that the shielding effect was higher on top side than on bottom, and that there was shielding effect over almost all area of medial side. Such results were related to both shifted position of tube in the colpostat and asymmetric distribution of active source in the tube. Maximum of shielding effect was $49\%$ on top side and $44\%$ on bottom side. The direction of iso-shielding effect curve was generally radial from the center of active source. In treatment planning using Fletcher-Suit colpostat, the internal structure should be considered to find precise doses to bladder and rectum, etc.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.157-167
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• 2020

Removing radioactive concrete is crucial in the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. However, this process generates radioactive aerosols, exposing workers to radiation. Although large amounts of radioactive concrete are generated during decommissioning, studies on the internal exposure of workers to radioactive aerosols generated from the cutting of radioactive concrete are very limited. In this study, therefore, we calculate the internal radiation doses of workers exposed to radioactive aerosols during activities such as drilling and cutting of radioactive concrete, using previous research data. The electrical-mobility-equivalent diameter measured in a previous study was converted to aerodynamic diameter using the Newton-Raphson method. Furthermore, the specific activity of each nuclide in radioactive concrete 10 years after nuclear power plants are shut down was calculated using the ORIGEN code. Eventually, we calculated the committed effective dose for each nuclide using the IMBA software. The maximum effective dose of ¹⁵²Eu constituted 83.09% of the total dose; moreover, the five highest-ranked elements (¹⁵²Eu, ¹⁵⁴Eu, ⁶⁰Co, ²³⁹Pu, ⁵⁵Fe) constituted 99.63%. Therefore, we postulate that these major elements could be measured first for rapid radiation exposure management of workers involved in decommissioning of nuclear power plants, even if all radioactive elements in concrete are not considered.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.61-71
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• 1986

An iodized oil such as Ethiodol or Lipiodol was selectively retained in the tumor vessels of the large hepatomas as well as in the small daughter hepatomas for long periods following the intra-arterial hepatic injection of such contrast material. The specific aim of the study is to deliver a high internal radiation dose to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in an attempt to control the disease. We were able to replace a small fraction of the stable iodine (I-127) of the 37% iodine in Lipiodol by the $I^{-131}$ with 100% exchange efficiency. $I^{-131}$ labeled Lipiodol was injected through the super-selected tumor feeding artery under superselection or into the proper hepatic arterial level of patients who have malignant hepatomas confirmed by aspiration cytology serum AFP and various imaging modalities. Clinical traial was performed on 43 cases during recent 6 months and follow-up observation was carried out. No severe complications or other adverse reactions were encountered until nowdays. $I^{-131}-Lipiodol$ was stable in vivo and no significant activity was noted in the thyroid, stomach, blood and urine after the injection. Only small fraction of radioisotope activity was noticed in the both side of lungs. Tumor to normal liver radio was very high. Therefore, $I^{-131}-Lipiodol$ (or P-32-Lipiodol) will be effective delivering high internal radiation dose to the tumor while delivering small radiation doses to normal tissues. Labeling, tumor dose calculation and preliminary findings will be presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.3
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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.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.50-64
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• 2024

Background: The reference dose coefficients (DCs) of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) have been widely used to estimate organ doses of individuals for risk assessments. This approach has been well accepted because individual anatomy data are usually unavailable, although dosimetric uncertainty exists due to the anatomical difference between the reference phantoms and the individuals. We attempted to quantify the individual variation of organ doses for photon external exposures by calculating and comparing organ DCs for 30 individuals against the ICRP reference DCs. Materials and Methods: We acquired computed tomography images from 30 patients in which eight organs (brain, breasts, liver, lungs, skeleton, skin, stomach, and urinary bladder) were segmented using the ImageJ software to create voxel phantoms. The phantoms were implemented into the Monte Carlo N-Particle 6 (MCNP6) code and then irradiated by broad parallel photon beams (10 keV to 10 MeV) at four directions (antero-posterior, postero-anterior, left-lateral, right-lateral) to calculate organ DCs. Results and Discussion: There was significant variation in organ doses due to the difference in anatomy among the individuals, especially in the kilovoltage region (e.g., <100 keV). For example, the red bone marrow doses at 0.01 MeV varied from 3 to 7 orders of the magnitude depending on the irradiation geometry. In contrast, in the megavoltage region (1-10 MeV), the individual variation of the organ doses was found to be negligibly small (differences <10%). It was also interesting to observe that the organ doses of the ICRP reference phantoms showed good agreement with the mean values of the organ doses among the patients in many cases. Conclusion: The results of this study would be informative to improve insights in individual-specific dosimetry. It should be extended to further studies in terms of many different aspects (e.g., other particles such as neutrons, other exposures such as internal exposures, and a larger number of individuals/patients) in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.325-336
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• 2019

The activity concentrations of $^{226}Ra$, $^{232}Th$, and $^{40}K$ from 102 building materials samples were determined using a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The activity concentrations were evaluated for possible radiological hazards to the human health. The excess lifetime cancer risks (ELCR) were also estimated, and the average values were recorded as $0.42{\pm}0.24{\times}10^{-3}$, $3.22{\pm}1.83{\times}10^{-3}$, and $3.65{\pm}1.85{\times}10^{-3}$ for outdoor, indoor, and total ELCR respectively. The activity concentrations were further subjected to RESRAD-BUILD computer code to evaluate the long-term radiation exposure to a dweller. The indoor doses were assessed from zero up to 70 years. The simulation results were $92{\pm}59$, $689{\pm}566$, and $782{\pm}569{\mu}Sv\;y^{-1}$ for indoor external, internal, and total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) respectively. The results reported were all below the recommended maximum values. Therefore, the radiological hazards attributed to building materials under study are negligible.