skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Development of 5- and 10-year-old pediatric phantoms based on polygon mesh surfaces

Journal Article · · Medical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1118/1.3615623· OSTI ID:22098599
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Anatomy, Federal University of Pernambuco, Avenida Professor Moraes Rego 1235, CEP 50670-901, Recife, Pernambuco (Brazil)

Purpose: The purpose of this study is the development of reference pediatric phantoms for 5- and 10-year-old children to be used for the calculation of organ and tissue equivalent doses in radiation protection. Methods: The study proposes a method for developing anatomically highly sophisticated pediatric phantoms without using medical images. The 5- and 10-year-old male and female phantoms presented here were developed using 3D modeling software applied to anatomical information taken from atlases and textbooks. The method uses polygon mesh surfaces to model body contours, the shape of organs as well as their positions, and orientations in the human body. Organ and tissue masses comply with the corresponding data given by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) for the 5- and 10-year-old reference children. Bones were segmented into cortical bone, spongiosa, medullary marrow, and cartilage to allow for the use of micro computer tomographic ({mu}CT) images of trabecular bone for skeletal dosimetry. Results: The four phantoms, a male and a female for each age, and their organs are presented in 3D images and their organ and tissue masses in tables which show the compliance of the ICRP reference values. Dosimetric data, calculated for the reference pediatric phantoms by Monte Carlo methods were compared with corresponding data from adult mesh phantoms and pediatric stylized phantoms. The comparisons show reasonable agreement if the anatomical differences between the phantoms are properly taken into account. Conclusions: Pediatric phantoms were developed without using medical images of patients or volunteers for the first time. The models are reference phantoms, suitable for regulatory dosimetry, however, the 3D modeling method can also be applied to medical images to develop patient-specific phantoms.

OSTI ID:
22098599
Journal Information:
Medical Physics, Vol. 38, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English