Quality assurance for the use of computational methods in dosimetry: activities of EURADOS Working Group 6 'Computational Dosimetry'.

Working Group (WG) 6 'Computational Dosimetry' of the European Radiation Dosimetry Group promotes good practice in the application of computational methods for radiation dosimetry in radiation protection and the medical use of ionising radiation. Its cross-sectional activities within the association cover a large range of current topics in radiation dosimetry, including more fundamental studies of radiation effects in complex systems. In addition, WG 6 also performs scientific research and development as well as knowledge transfer activities, such as training courses. Monte Carlo techniques, including the use of anthropomorphic and other numerical phantoms based on voxelised geometrical models, play a strong part in the activities pursued in WG 6. However, other aspects and techniques, such as neutron spectra unfolding, have an important role as well. A number of intercomparison exercises have been carried out in the past to provide information on the accuracy with which computational methods are applied and whether best practice is being followed. Within the exercises that are still ongoing, the focus has changed towards assessing the uncertainty that can be achieved with these computational methods. Furthermore, the future strategy of WG 6 also includes an extension of the scope toward experimental benchmark activities and evaluation of cross-sections and algorithms, with the vision of establishing a gold standard for Monte Carlo methods used in medical and radiobiological applications.

An intense source for cold cluster ions of a specific composition.

The demand for nanoscale materials of ultra-high purity and narrow size distribution is addressed. Clusters of Au, C60, H2O, and serine are produced inside helium nanodroplets using a combination of ionization, mass filtering, collisions with atomic or molecular vapor, and electrostatic extraction, in a specific and novel sequence. The helium droplets are produced in an expansion of cold helium gas through a nozzle into vacuum. The droplets are ionized by electron bombardment and subjected to a mass filter. The ionic and mass-selected helium droplets are then guided through a vacuum chamber filled with atomic or molecular vapor where they collide and "pick up" the vapor. The dopants then agglomerate inside the helium droplets around charge centers to singly charged clusters. Evaporation of the helium droplets is induced by collisions in a helium-filled radio frequency (RF)-hexapole, which liberates the cluster ions from the host droplets. The clusters are analyzed with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. It is demonstrated that using this sequence, the size distribution of the dopant cluster ions is distinctly narrower compared to ionization after pickup. Likewise, the ion cluster beam is more intense. The mass spectra show, as well, that ion clusters of the dopants can be produced with only few helium atoms attached, which will be important for messenger spectroscopy. All these findings are important for the scientific research of clusters and nanoscale materials in general.

New mesh-type phantoms and their dosimetric applications, including emergencies.

Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has constructed mesh-type adult reference computational phantoms by converting the voxel-type ICRP Publication 110 adult reference computational phantoms to a high-quality mesh format, and adding those tissues that were below the image resolution of the voxel phantoms and therefore not included in the Publication 110 phantoms. The new mesh phantoms include all the necessary source and target tissues for effective dose calculations, including the 8-40-µm-thick target layers of the alimentary and respiratory tract organs, thereby obviating the need for supplemental organ-specific stylised models (e.g. respiratory airways, alimentary tract organ walls and stem cell layers, lens of the eye, and skin basal layer). To see the impact of the new mesh-type reference phantoms, dose coefficients for some selected external and internal exposures were calculated and compared with the current reference values in ICRP Publications 116 and 133, which were calculated by employing the Publication 110 phantoms and the supplemental stylised models. The new mesh phantoms were also used to calculate dose coefficients for industrial radiography sources near the body, which can be used to estimate the organ doses of the worker who is accidentally exposed by an industrial radiography source; in these calculations, the mesh phantoms were deformed to reflect the size of the worker, and also to evaluate the effect of posture on dose coefficients.

Computational phantoms, ICRP/ICRU, and further developments.

Phantoms simulating the human body play a central role in radiation dosimetry. The first computational body phantoms were based upon mathematical expressions describing idealised body organs. With the advent of more powerful computers in the 1980s, voxel phantoms have been developed. Being based on three-dimensional images of individuals, they offer a more realistic anatomy. Hence, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) decided to construct voxel phantoms representative of the adult Reference Male and Reference Female for the update of organ dose coefficients. Further work on phantom development has focused on phantoms that combine the realism of patient-based voxel phantoms with the flexibility of mathematical phantoms, so-called 'boundary representation' (BREP) phantoms. This phantom type has been chosen for the ICRP family of paediatric reference phantoms. Due to the limited voxel resolution of the adult reference computational phantoms, smaller tissues, such as the lens of the eye, skin, and micron-thick target tissues in the respiratory and alimentary tract regions, could not be segmented properly. In this context, ICRP Committee 2 initiated a research project with the goal of producing replicas of the ICRP Publication 110 phantoms in polygon mesh format, including all source and target regions, even those with micron resolution. BREP phantoms of the fetus and the pregnant female at various stages of gestation complete the phantoms available for radiation protection computations.

Assessment of the Absorbed Dose in the Kidney of Nuclear Nephrology Paediatric Patients using ICRP Biokinetic Data and Monte Carlo Simulations with Mass-Scaled Paediatric Voxel Phantoms.

The aim of this work is to use Monte Carlo simulations and VOXEL phantoms to estimate the absorbed dose in paediatric patients (aged from 2 weeks to 16 y), with normal renal function, to whom technetium-99m-dimercaptosuccinic acid (99mTc-DMSA) was administered, for diagnostic renal scintigraphy purposes; and compare them with values obtained using the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) methodology. In the ICRP methodology, the cumulated absorbed dose in the kidneys is estimated by multiplying the administered activity with the corresponding given dose coefficients. The other methods were based on Monte Carlo simulations performed on two paediatric voxel phantoms (CHILD and BABY), and another three phantoms, which were modified to suit the mass of the patients' kidneys, and other anatomical factors. Different S-values were estimated using this methodology, which together with solving the ICRP biokinetic model to determine the cumulated activities, allowed for the estimation of absorbed doses different from those obtained with the ICRP method, together with new dose coefficients. The obtained values were then compared. The deviations suggest that the S-values are strongly dependent on the patient's total body weight, which could be in contrast with the ICRP data, which is provided by age, regardless of other anatomical parameters.

A MONTE CARLO STUDY OF SIMULATED MEASUREMENTS OF RADIONUCLIDES IN BONE.

When measuring the internally deposited activity in the bone of a subject, the placement of the detector is critical. This study reports the simulated counting efficiencies for three counting geometries, the skull, knee and shin, using 13 different voxel phantoms. It shows that the range of counting efficiencies for a given geometry is large for the studied phantoms, especially at low energies. Skull counting offers higher efficiency for low energies such as the 17 keV compared to knee counting or shin counting, but this advantage disappears when the energy is higher such as at 185 keV. This work also shows that the calibration phantom may greatly impact the accuracy of the activity estimate in bone counting, with uncertainties increasing greatly as the photon energy is reduced. Estimating the activity of a radionuclide in bone from direct counting has large uncertainties, and the dose calculated from a skeleton measurement would need careful analysis and, if possible, supporting data from other bioassay measurements.

The reference phantoms: voxel vs polygon.

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) reference male and female adult phantoms, described in Publication 110, are voxel phantoms based on whole-body computed tomography scans of a male and a female patient, respectively. The voxel in-plane resolution and the slice thickness, of the order of a few millimetres, are insufficient for proper segmentation of smaller tissues such as the lens of the eye, the skin, and the walls of some organs. The calculated doses for these tissues therefore present some limitations, particularly for weakly penetrating radiation. Similarly, the Publication 110 phantoms cannot represent 8-40-µm-thick target regions in respiratory or alimentary tract organs. Separate stylised models have been used to represent these tissues for calculation of the ICRP reference dose coefficients (DCs). ICRP Committee 2 recently initiated a research project, the ultimate goal of which is to convert the Publication 110 phantoms to a high-quality polygon-mesh (PM) format, including all source and target regions, even those of the 8-40-µm-thick alimentary and respiratory tract organs. It is expected that the converted phantoms would lead to the same or very similar DCs as the Publication 110 reference phantoms for penetrating radiation and, at the same time, provide more accurate DCs for weakly penetrating radiation and small tissues. Additionally, the reference phantoms in the PM format would be easily deformable and, as such, could serve as a starting point to create phantoms of various postures for use, for example, in accidental dose calculations. This paper will discuss the current progress of the phantom conversion project and its significance for ICRP DC calculations.

ICRP Publication 133: The ICRP computational framework for internal dose assessment for reference adults: specific absorbed fractions.

Abstract ­: Dose coefficients for assessment of internal exposures to radionuclides are radiological protection quantities giving either the organ equivalent dose or effective dose per intake of radionuclide following ingestion or inhalation. In the International Commission on Radiological Protection's (ICRP) Occupational Intakes of Radionuclides (OIR) publication series, new biokinetic models for distribution of internalised radionuclides in the human body are presented as needed for establishing time-integrated activity within organs of deposition (source regions). This series of publications replaces Publications 30 and 68 (ICRP, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1994b). In addition, other fundamental data needed for computation of the dose coefficients are radionuclide decay data (energies and yields of emitted radiations), which are given in Publication 107 (ICRP, 2008), and specific absorbed fraction (SAF) values ­ defined as the fraction of the particle energy emitted in a source tissue region that is deposited in a target tissue region per mass of target tissue. This publication provides the technical basis for SAFs relevant to internalised radionuclide activity in the organs of Reference Adult Male and Reference Adult Female as defined in Publications 89 and 110 (ICRP, 2002, 2009). SAFs are given for uniform distributions of mono-energetic photons, electrons, alpha particles, and fission-spectrum neutrons over a range of relevant energies. Electron SAFs include both collision and radiative components of energy deposition. SAF data are matched to source and target organs of the biokinetic models of the OIR publication series, as well as the Publication 100 (ICRP, 2006) Human Alimentary Tract Model and the Publication 66 (ICRP, 1994a) Human Respiratory Tract Model, the latter as revised within Publication 130 (ICRP, 2015). This publication further outlines the computational methodology and nomenclature for assessment of internal dose in a manner consistent with that used for nuclear medicine applications. Numerical data for particle-specific and energy-dependent SAFs are given in electronic format for numerical coupling to the respiratory tract, alimentary tract, and systemic biokinetic models of the OIR publication series.

Assessment of the occupational exposure in real time during interventional cardiology procedures.

Interventional cardiology (IC) procedures can be complex, requiring the operators to work near the patient, during long exposure times. Owing to scattered radiation in the patient and the fluoroscopic equipment, the medical staff are exposed to a non-uniform radiation field and can receive high radiation doses. In this study, it is proposed to analyse staff doses obtained in real time, during IC procedures. A system for occupational dosimetry in real time was used. In order to identify some parameters that may affect the staff doses, Monte Carlo (MC) calculations, using MCNPX v.2.7.0 code and voxel phantoms, were performed. The data obtained from measurements, together with MC simulations, allowed the identification of actions and behaviours of the medical staff that could be considered a risk under routine working conditions. The implementation of this monitoring system for exposure of personnel may have a positive effect on optimisation of radiological protection in fluoroscopically guided cardiac procedures.

A dosimetric study of prostate brachytherapy using Monte Carlo simulations with a voxel phantom, measurements and a comparison with a treatment planning procedure.

In prostate brachytherapy treatments, there is an initial swelling of the prostate of the patient due to an oedema related to the insertion of the seeds. The variation of the prostate volume can lead to variations in the final prescribed dose in treatment planning procedures. As such, it is important to understand their influence for dose optimisation purposes. This work reports on a dosimetric study of the swelling of the prostate in prostate brachytherapy using Monte Carlo simulations. Dosimetric measurements performed on a physical anthropomorphic tissue-equivalent prostate phantom and thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were used to validate the MC model. Finally the MC model was also used to simulate prostate swelling in a real treatment planning procedure. The obtained results indicate that the parameters mentioned above represent a source of uncertainty in dose assessment in prostate brachytherapy, and can be detrimental to a correct dose evaluation in treatment plannings, and that these parameters can be accurately determined by means of MC simulations with a voxel phantom.

Dosimetric models of the eye and lens of the eye and their use in assessing dose coefficients for ocular exposures.

Based upon recent epidemiological studies of ocular exposure, the Main Commission of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) in ICRP Publication 118 states that the threshold dose for radiation-induced cataracts is now considered to be approximately 0.5 Gy for both acute and fractionated exposures. Consequently, a reduction was also recommended for the occupational annual equivalent dose to the lens of the eye from 150 mSv to 20 mSv, averaged over defined periods of 5 years. To support ocular dose assessment and optimisation, Committee 2 included Annex F within ICRP Publication 116 . Annex F provides dose coefficients - absorbed dose per particle fluence - for photon, electron, and neutron irradiation of the eye and lens of the eye using two dosimetric models. The first approach uses the reference adult male and female voxel phantoms of ICRP Publication 110. The second approach uses the stylised eye model of Behrens et al., which itself is based on ocular dimensional data given in Charles and Brown. This article will review the data and models of Annex F with particular emphasis on how these models treat tissue regions thought to be associated with stem cells at risk.

Efficiency correction factors of an ACCUSCAN whole-body counter due to the biodistribution of 134Cs, 137Cs and 60Co.

The efficiency calibration of whole-body counters (WBCs) for monitoring of internal contaminations is usually performed with anthropomorphic physical phantoms assuming homogeneous activity distribution. Besides the inherent limitations of these phantoms in resembling the human anatomy, they do not represent a realistic activity distribution, since in real situations each incorporated radionuclide has its particular biodistribution after entering the systemic circulation. Moreover, the activity content in the different organs and tissues comprising the biokinetics is time dependent. This work aims at assessing the whole-body counting efficiency deviations arising from considering a detailed voxel phantom instead of a standard physical phantom (BOMAB) and at evaluating the effect of the anatomical differences between both phantoms. It also aims at studying the efficiency considering the biodistribution of a set of radionuclides of interest incorporated in the scope of environmental and occupational exposures (inhalation and ingestion) and at computing the time-dependent efficiency correction factors to account for the biodistribution variation over time. For the purpose, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations were performed to simulate the whole-body counting efficiencies and biokinetic models were used to estimate the radionuclides' biokinetic behaviour in the human body after intake. The comparison between the efficiencies obtained with BOMAB and the voxel phantom showed deviations between 1.8 and 11.7 %, proving the adequacy of the BOMAB for WBC calibration. The obtained correction factors show that the effect of the biodistribution in the whole-body counting efficiency is more pronounced in cases of acute activity uptake and long-term retention in certain organs than in cases of homogeneous distribution in body tissues, for which the biokinetics influence can be neglected. This work further proves the powerful combination of MC simulation methods using voxel phantoms and biokinetic models for internal dosimetry studies.

Organ doses from environmental exposures calculated using voxel phantoms of adults and children.

This paper presents effective and organ dose conversion coefficients for members of the public due to environmental external exposures, calculated using the ICRP adult male and female reference computational phantoms as well as voxel phantoms of a baby, two children and four adult individual phantoms--one male and three female, one of them pregnant. Dose conversion coefficients are given for source geometries representing environmental radiation exposures, i.e. whole body irradiations from a volume source in air, representing a radioactive cloud, a plane source in the ground at a depth of 0.5 g cm⁻², representing ground contamination by radioactive fall-out, and uniformly distributed natural sources in the ground. The organ dose conversion coefficients were calculated employing the Monte Carlo code EGSnrc simulating the photon transport in the voxel phantoms, and are given as effective and equivalent doses normalized to air kerma free-in-air at height 1 m above the ground in Sv Gy(-1). The findings showed that, in general, the smaller the body mass of the phantom, the higher the dose. The difference in effective dose between an adult and an infant is 80-90% at 50 keV and less than 40% above 100 keV. Furthermore, dose equivalent rates for photon exposures of several radionuclides for the above environmental exposures were calculated with the most recent nuclear decay data. Data are shown for effective dose, thyroid, colon and red bone marrow. The results are expected to facilitate regulation of exposure to radiation, relating activities of radionuclides distributed in air and ground to dose of the public due to external radiation as well as the investigation of the radiological effects of major radiation accidents such as the recent one in Fukushima and the decision making of several committees.

Dose conversion coefficients for paediatric CT examinations with automatic tube current modulation.

A common dose-saving technique used in modern CT devices is automatic tube current modulation (TCM), which was originally designed to also reduce the dose in paediatric CT patients. In order to be able to deduce detailed organ doses of paediatric models, dose conversion coefficients normalized to CTDI(vol) for an eight-week-old baby and seven- and eight-year-old children have been computed accounting for TCM. The relative difference in organ dose conversion coefficients with and without TCM is for many organs and examinations less than 10%, but can in some cases amount up to 30%, e.g., for the thyroid in the chest CT of the seven-year-old child. Overall, the impact of TCM on the conversion coefficients increases with increasing age. Besides TCM, also the effect of collimation and tube voltage on organ dose conversion coefficients has been investigated. It could be shown that the normalization to CTDI(vol) leads to conversion coefficients that can in most cases be considered to be independent of collimation and tube voltage.

Performance assessment and uncertainty evaluation of a portable NaI-based detection system used for thyroid monitoring.

This work aims at assessing the performance of a portable detection system, equipped with an NaI(Tl) scintillation detector for in vivo thyroid monitoring, which was properly calibrated using an anthropomorphic neck phantom. The anthropomorphic physical phantoms commonly used for the efficiency calibration of in vivo counters often present certain limitations regarding the geometry and the activity distribution. Therefore, the feasibility of these detection systems for in vivo monitoring should be assessed whenever possible. To accomplish this assessment, patients to whom (99m)Tc and (123)I marked radiopharmaceuticals have been administered in the framework of nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures were monitored. As the biokinetic models of the administered radiopharmaceuticals are known, the time-dependent activity functions in the critical organs after administration are easily quantified. The measured activities in the thyroid using the NaI(Tl) scintillation detector were compared with the estimated activities using the biokinetic models, in order to reach conclusion about the applicability of the portable scintillation counter for in vivo thyroid monitoring. The state-of-the-art Monte Carlo computer program PENELOPE and two voxel phantoms (male and female) were used to evaluate the overall uncertainties influencing the thyroid monitoring. A computational parametric study was performed to quantify the influence of several parameters in the activity quantification (neck-detector distance, thyroid shape, thyroid size and overlying tissue thickness), which allowed one to gain insight and to better understand the discrepancies between the calculated and measured activities.

Dose conversion coefficients for monoenergetic electrons incident on a realistic human eye model with different lens cell populations.

The radiation-induced posterior subcapsular cataract has long been generally accepted to be a deterministic effect that does not occur at doses below a threshold of at least 2 Gy. Recent epidemiological studies indicate that the threshold for cataract induction may be much lower or that there may be no threshold at all. A thorough study of this subject requires more accurate dose estimates for the eye lens than those available in ICRP Publication 74. Eye lens absorbed dose per unit fluence conversion coefficients for electron irradiation were calculated using a geometrical model of the eye that takes into account different cell populations of the lens epithelium, together with the MCNPX Monte Carlo radiation transport code package. For the cell population most sensitive to ionizing radiation-the germinative cells-absorbed dose per unit fluence conversion coefficients were determined that are up to a factor of 4.8 higher than the mean eye lens absorbed dose conversion coefficients for electron energies below 2 MeV. Comparison of the results with previously published values for a slightly different eye model showed generally good agreement for all electron energies. Finally, the influence of individual anatomical variability was quantified by positioning the lens at various depths below the cornea. A depth difference of 2 mm between the shallowest and the deepest location of the germinative zone can lead to a difference between the resulting absorbed doses of up to nearly a factor of 5000 for electron energy of 0.7 MeV.

New developments in internal dosimetry models.

This paper describes new biokinetic and dosimetric models, especially those being developed by ICRP which will be used in the forthcoming documents on Occupational Intakes of Radionuclides. It also presents the results of a working group within the European project CONRAD which is being continued within EURADOS. This group is implementing the new models, performing quality assurance of the model implementation (including their description) and giving guidance to the scientific community on the application of the models for individual dose assessment.

Theoretical assessment of whole body counting performances using numerical phantoms of different gender and sizes.

A goal of whole body counting (WBC) is the estimation of the total body burden of radionuclides disregarding the actual position within the body. To achieve the goal, the detectors need to be placed in regions where the photon flux is as independent as possible from the distribution of the source. At the same time, the detectors need high photon fluxes in order to achieve better efficiency and lower minimum detectable activities. This work presents a method able to define the layout of new WBC systems and to study the behaviour of existing ones using both detection efficiency and its dependence on the position of the source within the body of computational phantoms.