Experimental measurement of radiation dose in a dedicated breast CT system

• Published in: Chinese physics C Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 91 - 97
• Main Author: 申善威 王燕芳 舒航 唐晓 魏存峰 宋玉收 史戎坚 魏龙
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Assessments; Breast; Computer simulation; CT系统; Deviation; Mathematical analysis; Monte Carlo methods; Performance indices; PMMA; Polymethyl methacrylates; TLD; 乳腺; 剂量评估; 实验测量; 蒙特卡罗方法; 辐射剂量
• ISSN: 1674-1137; 0254-3052
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1137/38/3/038201

Radiation dose is an important performance indicator of a dedicated breast CT（DBCT）.In this paper,the method of putting thermoluminescent dosimeters（TLD） into a breast shaped PMMA phantom to study the dose distribution in breasts was improved by using smaller TLDs and a new half-ellipsoid PMMA phantom.Then the weighted CT dose index（CTDI_w） was introduced to average glandular assessment in DBCT for the first time and two measurement modes were proposed for different sizes of breasts.The dose deviations caused by using cylindrical phantoms were simulated using the Monte Carlo method and a set of correction factors were calculated.The results of the confirmatory measurement with a cylindrical phantom（11 cm/8 cm） show that CTDI_w gives a relatively conservative overestimate of the average glandular dose comparing to the results of Monte Carlo simulation and TLDs measurement.But with better practicability and stability,the CTDI_w is suitable for dose evaluations in daily clinical practice.Both of the TLDs and CTDI_w measurements demonstrate that the radiation dose of our DBCT system is lower than conventional two-view mammography.