A patient-equivalent attenuation phantom for estimating patient exposures from automatic exposure controlled x-ray examinations of the abdomen and lumbo-sacral spine

Journal Article · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1990 · Medical Physics; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1118/1.596483· OSTI ID:6510410

Conway, B J; Duff, J E; Fewell, T R; Jennings, R J; Rothenberg, L N; Fleischman, R C ^[1]

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1. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD (USA)

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requires diagnostic radiology facilities to known the approximate amount of radiation received by an average patient during radiographic examinations at the facility. Automatic exposure controlled (AEC) techniques are used for many of these exams, and a standard patient-equivalent phantom is necessary when estimating patient exposure on such systems. This is of particular importance if exposures are to be compared among AEC systems with different entrance x-ray spectra. We have developed a phantom, LucA1 Abdomen, to facilitate determining the average patient exposure from AEC anteroposterior (AP) abdomen and lumbo-sacral (LS) spine radiography. The phantom is relatively lightweight, transportable, sturdy, and made of readily available inexpensive materials (Lucite and aluminum). It accurately simulates the primary and scatter transmission through the soft tissue and L-4 spinal regions of a patient-equivalent anthropomorphic phantom for x-ray spectra typically used in abdomen/LS spine radiography. A clinical evaluation to verify the patient-equivalence of three commercial anthropomorphic phantoms (Humanoid, Rando, 3-M) and two acrylic/aluminum phantoms (ANSI and LucA1 Abdomen) has been conducted. The design and development of the LucA1 Abdomen phantom and the evaluation of all phantoms is described.

• OSTI ID: 6510410
• Journal Information: Medical Physics; (USA), Journal Name: Medical Physics; (USA) Vol. 17:3; ISSN MPHYA; ISSN 0094-2405
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
655003* -- Medical Physics-- Dosimetry
ABDOMEN
BIOMEDICAL RADIOGRAPHY
BODY
BODY AREAS
CONTROL
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
DOSES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MATERIALS
MEDICINE
MOCKUP
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
ORGANS
PHANTOMS
QUALITY CONTROL
RADIATION DOSES
RADIATIONS
RADIOLOGY
SKELETON
STRUCTURAL MODELS
TISSUE-EQUIVALENT MATERIALS
VERTEBRAE
X RADIATION