Evaluation of Electron Specific Absorbed Fractions in Organs of Digimouse Voxel Phantom Using Monte Carlo Simulation Code FLUKA.

BACKGROUND

For preclinical evaluations of radiopharmaceuticals, most studies are carried out on mice. Electron specific absorbed fractions (SAF) values have had vital role in the assessment of absorbed dose. In past studies, electron SAFs were given for limited source target pairs using older reports of human organ compositions.

OBJECTIVE

Electron specific absorbed fraction values for monoenergetic electrons of energies 15, 50, 100, 500, 1000 & 4000 keV were evaluated for the Digimouse voxel phantom incorporated in Monte Carlo code FLUKA. From the latest report (International Commission on Radiological Protection ICRP) 110, organ compositions and densities were adopted.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We have used the Digimouse voxel phantom which was incorporated in Monte Carlo code FLUKA. Simulation studies were performed using FLUKA. The organ sources considered in this study were lungs, skeleton, heart, bladder, testis, stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, kidney, adrenal, eye and brain. The considered target organs were lungs, skeleton, heart, bladder, testis, stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, kidney, adrenal and brain. Eye and brain were considered as target organs only for eye and brain as source organs.

RESULTS

The electron SAF values for self-irradiation decreases with increasing electron energy. The electron SAF values for cross-irradiation are also found to be dependent on the electron energy and the geometries of source and target. Organ masses and electron SAF values are presented in tabular form.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study will be useful in evaluating the absorbed dose to various organs of mice similar in size to the present study.