Radiation dose measurement and prediction for linear slit scanning radiography

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-117).This study describes dose measurements made for linear slit scanning radiography (LSSR) and a dose prediction model that was developed for LSSR. The measurement and calculation methods used for determining entrance dose and effective dose (E) in conventional X-ray imaging systems were verified for use with LSSR. Entrance dose and E were obtained for LSSR and compared to dose measurements on conventional radiography units. Entrance dose measurements were made using an ionisation chamber and dosemeter; E was calculated from these entrance dose measurements using a Monte Carlo simulator. Comparisons with data from around the world showed that for most examinations the doses obtained for LSSR were considerably lower than those of conventional radiography units for the same image quality. Reasons for the low dose obtained with LSSR include scatter reduction and the beam geometry of LSSR. These results have been published as two papers in international peer reviewed journals. A new method to calculate entrance dose and effective dose for LSSR is described in the second part of this report. This method generates the energy spectrum for a particular set of technique factors, simulates a filter through which the beam is attenuated and then calculates entrance dose directly from this energy spectrum. The energy spectrum is then combined with previously generated organ energy absorption data for a standard sized patient to calculate effective dose to a standard sized patient.Energy imparted for different patient thicknesses can then be used to adjust the effective dose to a patient of any size. This method is performed for a large number of slit beams moving across the body in order to more effectively simulate LSSR. This also allows examinations with technique factors that vary for different parts of the anatomy to be simulated. This method was tested against measured data and Monte Carlo simulations. This model was shown to be accurate, while being specifically suited to LSSR and being considerably faster than Monte Carlo simulations