Proton and photon absorbed-dose conversion coefficients for embryo and foetus from top-down irradiation geometry.

Absorbed-dose conversion coefficients are calculated for the embryo of 8 weeks and the foetus of 3, 6 or 9 months when the mother's body is exposed to protons and photons from top-down (TOP) direction. It provides data sets in addition to other standard irradiation geometries published previously. The TOP-irradiation geometry is considered here, because high-energy particles are often peaked from the TOP direction onboard aircrafts. The results show that absorbed-doses from high-energy particles could be underestimated significantly if isotropic (ISO) irradiation geometry is assumed. For protons of 100 GeV, absorbed-doses from TOP irradiation are approximately 2.3-2.9 times higher than the doses from ISO irradiation for different foetal ages. For 10 GeV photons, foetal doses from TOP irradiation are approximately 6.8-12 times higher than the doses from ISO irradiation. The coefficients from TOP-irradiation geometry are given in wide energy ranges, from 100 MeV to 100 GeV for protons and from 50 keV to 10 GeV for photons. They can, therefore, be used in various applications whenever exposure from the TOP-irradiation direction is concerned.