Prog Med Phys.  2013 Mar;24(1):48-53.

Comparative Studies on Absorbed Dose by Geant4-based Simulation Using DICOM File and Gafchromic EBT2 Film

• Mo EH
• Lee SH
• Ahn SH
• Kim CY

Abstract

Monte Carlo method has been known as the most accurate method for calculating absorbed dose in the human body, and an anthropomorphic phantom has been mainly used as a method of simulating internal organs for using such a calculation method. However, various efforts are made to extract data on several internal organs in the human body directly from CT DICOM files in recent Monte Carlo calculation using Geant4 code and to use by converting them into the geometry necessary for simulation. Such a function makes it possible to calculate the internal absorbed dose accurately while duplicating the actual human anatomical structure. Thus, this study calculated the absorbed dose in the human body by using Geant4 associating with DICOM files, and aimed to confirm the usefulness by compare the result with the measured dose using a Gafchromic EBT2 film. This study compared the dose calculated using simulation and the measured dose in beam central axis using the EBT2 film. The results showed that the range of difference was an average of 3.75% except for a build-up region, in which the dose rapidly changed from skin surface to the depth of maximum dose. In addition, this study made it easy to confirm the target absorbed dose by internal organ and organ through the output of the calculated value of dose by CT slice and the dose value of each voxel in each slice. Thus, the method that outputs dose value by slice and voxel through the use of CT DICOM, which is actual image data of human body, instead of the anthropomorphic phantom enables accurate dose calculations of various regions. Therefore, it is considered that it will be useful for dose calculation of radiotherapy planning system in the future. Moreover, it is applicable for currently-used several energy ranges in current use, so it is considered that it will be effectively used in order to check the radiation absorbed dose in the human body.

Keyword

Monte Carlo method; Geant4; Gafchromic EBT2 film; DICOM

MeSH Terms

Axis, Cervical Vertebra
Human Body
Humans
Monte Carlo Method
Skin

Figure

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  Fig. 1. DICOM image (a) and Converted Image into Geant4 geometry (b) of phantom.

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  Fig. 2. Trajectory of radiation beam in Geant4 simulation.

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  Fig. 3. x, y coordinate of voxel in one slice.

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  Fig. 4. Comparison of calculated dose and measured dose by depth in phantom.

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  Fig. 5. Difference (%) between calculated dose and measured dose.

Reference

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