On the gamma radiation response of commercially available 3D printing materials for medical dosimetry.

3D printing technology has rapidly spread for decades, allowing the fabrication of medical implants and human phantoms and revolutionizing healthcare. The objective of this study is to evaluate some radiological properties of commercially available 3D printing materials as potential tissue mimicking materials. Among fifteen materials, we compared their properties with nine human tissues. In all materials and tissues, exposure and energy absorption buildup factors were calculated for photon energies between 0.015 and 15 MeV and penetration depths up to 40 mean free path. Furthermore, the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit (version 10.5) was used to simulate their percentage depth dose distributions. In addition, equivalent atomic numbers, effective atomic numbers, attenuation coefficients, and CT numbers have been examined. All parameters were considered in calculating the average relative error (σ), which was used as a statistical comparison tool. With σ between 6 and 7, we found that Polylactic Acid (PLA) was capable of simulating eye lenses, blood, soft tissue, lung, muscle, and brain tissues. Moreover, Polymethacrylic Acid (PMAA) material has a σ value of 4 when modeling adipose and breast tissues, respectively. Aside from that, variations in 3D printing materials' infilling percentage can affect their CT numbers. We therefore suggest the PLA for mimicking soft tissue, muscle, brain, eye lens, lung and blood tissues, with an infill of between 92.7 and 94.3 percent. We also suggest an 89 percent infill when simulating breast tissue. Furthermore, with a 96.7 percent infill, the PMAA faithfully replicates adipose tissue. Additionally, we found that a 59 percent infill of Fe-PLA material is comparable to cortical bone. Due to the benefits of creating individualized medical phantoms and equipment, the results might be seen as an added value for both patients and clinicians.

MONTE CARLO STUDY OF THE CARDIAC ABSORBED DOSE DURING X-RAY EXAMINATION OF AN ADULT PATIENT.

The computational voxel phantom 'High-Definition Reference Korean-Man (HDRK-Man)' was implemented into the Monte Carlo transport toolkit Geant4. The voxel model, adjusted to the Reference Korean Man, is 171 cm in height and 68 kg in weight and composed of ∼30 million voxels whose size is 1.981 × 1.981 × 2.0854 mm3 The Geant4 code is then utilised to compute the dose conversion coefficients (DCCs) expressed in absorbed dose per air kerma free in air for >30 tissues and organs, including almost all organs required in the new recommendation of the ICRP 103, due to a broad parallel beam of monoenergetic photons impinging in antero-postero direction with energy ranging from 10 to 150 keV. The computed DCCs of different organs are found to be in good agreement with data published using other simulation codes. Also, the influence of patient size on DCC values was investigated for a representative body size of the adult Korean patient population. The study was performed using five different sizes covering the range of 0.8-1.2 magnification order of the original HDRK-Man. It focussed on the computation of DCC for the human heart. Moreover, the provided DCCs were used to present an analytical parameterisation for the calculation of the cardiac absorbed dose for any arbitrary X-ray spectrum and for those patient sizes. Thus, the present work can be considered as an enhancement of the continuous studies performed by medical physicist as part of quality control tests and radiation protection dosimetry.

Dose reduction in chest CT examination.

Computed tomography (CT) examinations involve relatively high doses to patients. The objectives of this study were to optimise the radiation dose for patient during CT chest scan and to estimate the lifetime cancer risk. A total of 50 patients were studied: control group (A) (38 patients) and optimisation group (B) (12 patients). The optimisation protocol was based on CT pitch increment and lowering tube current. The mean volume CT dose index (CTDI vol) was 21.17 mGy and dose length product (DLP) was 839.0 mGy cm for Group A, and CTDI vol was 8.3 mGy and DLP was 339.7 for Group B. The overall cancer risk was estimated to be 8.0 and 3.0 cancer incidence per million for Groups A and B, respectively. The patient dose optimisation during CT chest was investigated. Lowering tube current and pitch increment achieved a radiation dose reduction of up to 60 % without compromising the diagnostic findings.