Dose Assessment for Medical Exposure from Diagnostic X-rays Using a Human Voxel Model

Korean voxel model, KORMAN, segmented from whole-body MR data of an adult male, was used to calculate organ equivalent doses and effective doses due to diagnostic X-ray examinations. Calculated doses were normalized to entrance airkerma and compared with those derived using a stylized mathematical model, MIRD5. General purposed Monte Carlo code, MCNPX 2.3 was used for simulation of X-ray procedure. Korean voxel model picked up 0.048 Sv/Gy of effective dose per unit air kerma from a single chest PA examination, and 0.277 Sv/Gy from abdomen AP examination. These calculated results are higher than those of MIRD5. The difference of effective doses between Korean voxel model and MIRD5 was within 32%, which were caused by significant discrepancies of organ equivalent doses between the two models. As MIRD5 is representing reference man, whereas KORMAN is segmented from specific individual MR data, it is recognized that variation among individuals could be significant for dose assessment in X-ray examination. Sub...