Investigation of organ dose variation with adult head size and pediatric age for neuro-interventional projections

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of patient head size on radiation dose to radiosensitive organs, such as the eye lens, brain and spinal cord in fluoroscopically guided neuro-interventional procedures and CBCT scans of the head. The Toshiba Infinix C-Arm System was modeled in BEAMnrc/EGSnrc Monte-Carlo code and patient organ and effective doses were calculated in DOSxynrc/EGSnrc for CBCT and interventional procedures. X-ray projections from different angles, CBCT scans, and neuro-interventional procedures were simulated on a computational head phantom for the range of head sizes in the adult population and for different pediatric ages. The difference of left-eye lens dose between the mean head size and the mean ± 1 standard deviation (SD) ranges from 20% to 300% for projection angles of 0° to 90° RAO. The differences for other organs do not vary as much and is only about 10% for the brain. For a LCI-High CBCT protocol, the difference between mean and mean ± 1 SD head size is about 100% for lens dose and only 10% for mean and peak brain dose; the difference between 20 and 3 year-old mean head size is an increase of about 200% for the eye lens dose and only 30% for mean and peak brain dose. Dose for all organs increases with decreasing head size for the same reference point air kerma. These results will allow size-specific dose estimates to be made using software such as our dose tracking system (DTS).