Paper Authors and Title
Devon Keogh (Technological University Dublin), Dervil Cody, George Amarandei, Clare Devery, Lorna Sweetman, “Calculation of radiation doses to patients in diagnostic radiology using PCXMC software”
Abstract
X-ray radiology may exhibit negative biological impacts. PCXMC is a Monte Carlo phantom based computational program used in clinical environments to calculate radiology radiation dose and fatal cancer risks received by such examinations. PCXMC allows for numerous X-ray beam, patient and simulation inputs and outputs absorbed dose, effective dose, and risk of exposure induced death (REID) for various cancers. Clinically applicable PCXMC outputs have not yet been comprehensively compiled for educational use. PCXMC was used to investigate relationships between various clinically valid beam parameters (energy, intensity), planar view geometries (AP/PA/LATR/LATL whole body and anatomy specific views), and patient statistics (age, weight, gender, ethnicity), as supplied by medical professionals, peer-reviewed database sources and government statistics. Dosimetric and REID outputs were recorded. For whole body planar X-rays, males exhibited higher absorbed (mean 198% m/f) and lower effective (mean 90% m/f) doses versus females. REID for different organs were raised within the beam area and on the beam incident body side (illustrative 2400% increased REID for liver in whole body male LATR versus LATL). Varying beam height and width was seen to affect dose as a function of the height-width aspect ratio of the anatomy involved. Euro-Americans had higher total REID than Asian and Finnish counterparts (37.4yo male 1.18/1.03/1 respective REID ratio), with REID also varying non-linearly with age. PCXMC proved to be a versatile modelling tool from which a comprehensive database could be constructed but was limited in not modelling realistic beam collimation.
Poster