What are we going to discuss?

1. Units
2. Air-Wall Ionization
3. Specific Gamma-Ray Emission
4. Beta Radiation Dose
5. Dose from Internally Deposited
Radionuclides
6. Neutron Dose

2
Introduction
 Dosimetry attempts to quantitatively
relate specific radiation measurements to
chemical/biological changes that could be
produced

 Essential for quantifying biological

changes as a function of radiation
received

3
Introduction (cont)
 Radiation interaction
 Produces ionized and excited atoms and
molecules
 Secondary electrons
 Produce additional ionizations and excitations

 Finally all energies are expended.

 Initial electronic transitions rapid (<10-15 s)

 Represent the initial physical perturbations
from which all effects evolve.
 Ionization and energy absorption are the
starting point for radiation dosimetry

4
[1] Old Units
 Back in the old days, a common
dosimeter was a piece of dental film
attached to a paper clip.
 A daily allowable exposure was an
exposure that was just enough to
detect some fogging on the film.
 This was known as a “paper-clip
unit”

5
Old Units (cont)
 For greater doses (like therapeutic
doses), a unit used was the “skin
erythema unit”, which was an
exposure which would just cause
visible reddening of the skin
 Neither unit is very biologically
meaningful

6
Quantities and Units
 Absorbed Dose
 Primary physical standard in dosimetry
 Defined as energy absorbed per unit mass from
any kind of ionizing radiation in any target.
 SI Unit of absorbed dose,
 Called the Gray (Gy)
 1 Gy = 1 J kg-1
 Historical term
 rad (100 erg g-1) [nb: 107 erg = 1 J]
 1 Gy = 107 erg/103g = 104 erg/g = 100 rad

7
Quantities and Units
 Exposure
 Defined for x- and gamma radiation
 In terms of ionization of air
 Old unit called “roentgen” (R)

 Initially defined in 1928; current

definition is:
 1 R  2.58 x 10-4 C kg-1 of air, exactly

 Applies only to electromagnetic

radiation; the charge and mass refer
only to air.

8
Roentgen - original definition
 Amount of radiation that produced 1
esu of charge in 1 cm3 of air at STP
 1 esu = 3.335 x 10-10 C

 At STP air has a density of 0.001293 g cm-3

 1 kg of air has a volume of 7.734 x 105 cm3
 1 R = 3.335 x 10-10 C cm-3 of air
= 2.58 x 10-4 C kg-1
9
 Example: Absorbed Dose in Air
 What is the absorbed dose in air when the
exposure is 1 R?
 Need to know “w” for air (from Cember)
 33.7 eV/ip = 33.7 J/C.
1 R  2.58 x 10-4 C/kg x 33.7 J/C = 8.7 x 10-3 J kg-1

 This equals 8.7 x 10-3 Gy (0.87 rad)

 Similar calculations show that 1R would produce a
dose of 9.5 x10-3 Gy (=0.95 rad) in soft tissue.
 Why is there a difference between air
and tissue??? Different ionization
potentials
 This is why one can say that 1 R ~ 1 rad in tissue.10
 Exposure Measurement:
Air-Wall Chamber

i ng m
arg rag
Plastic
Ch aph
di

Anode

11
[2] Air-Wall Chamber
Built as a capacitor C  Q
V
 Central anode, insulated from rest of
chamber
 Given an initial charge
 When exposed to photons, electrons
from the walls and air neutralize charge
& lower potential between anode and
wall
 Change in potential difference is
proportional to total ionization (and
therefore exposure)
12
Fabrication
 The ionization chamber portion has
a double electrode in the centre
 one is a fixed metal wire
 other is a metal-coated quartz
fibre spring
 The case is the other electrode of
the ionization chamber

13
Detailed Operation
 Initially, the electrodes are charged to
approximately 200 volts by connecting an
external power supply to the charging pin.
 Both the centre electrodes will then be
positively charged and a repulsive force will
exist between them.
 This force drives the moveable fibre away
from the fixed wire.
 The moveable fibre is observed through a
simple microscope against a calibrated
scale, and the voltage is adjusted until the
fibre is on the zero mark

14
Detecting Radiation
 When the chamber is irradiated, the
newly created ions will discharge
the electrodes to a lower voltage.
 This will cause the fibre spring to
move proportionally.
 The new position is indicated by the
image seen in the microscope and
gives a reading of the exposure
(must be calibrated of course!).

16
Air-Wall Chamber
 Ideal air wall chambers have only
primary electrons ionizing the air in
the sensitive volume
 Ideal wall thickness is almost energy
independent over a range from 200
keV to almost 2 MeV
 Walls must be thick enough to
generate enough primary electrons
 Walls must be thin enough so that
primary radiation is not shielded
17
Pocket Ionization Chamber (PIC)
or
Pen Ionization Dosimeter (PID)
or
Pencil Dosimeter (PD)
or
Direct Reading Dosimeter (DRD)
 Exposure-Dose Relationship
 Exposure
 measures charge produced in a mass of air
 C/kg
 Absorbed dose
 Measures energy absorbed per mass
 J/kg
 How to relate measurement in air to
absorbed dose in something besides
air?

19
Exposure-Dose Relationship
 Energy absorption in air  energy
absorption in tissue
 Dose in air  dose in tissue
 1 R = 87.7 ergs/gair = 95 ergs/gtissue
 1 rad = 100 ergs/gtissue
 For regulatory purposes, frequently
1 R is assumed to be equal to 1 rad
 Conversion can be done if required

20
Exposure to Dose Conversion

 Equation 6.12b, Cember

m
87.7  m
rads    roentgens
100  a
a
 m = Energy absorption coefficient for
tissue (or any medium)
 a = Energy absorption coefficient for air
 m = Tissue (or any medium) density
 a = Air density
21
Bragg-Gray Theory
 How do we measure absorbed dose?
 The best way would be
calorimetry...but not very practical.
 Absorbed dose is thus measured by:
 measuring ionization
 use of correction factors
 calculating (approximating) dose
 Done with BRAGG-GRAY CAVITY
THEORY
22
Measurement of Absorbed Dose
 Bragg-Gray principle relates
ionization measurements in a gas to
absorbed dose in some material.
 Consider a gas in a walled enclosure
irradiated by photons:

e1
Gas
Wall

e2

23
Bragg-Gray (cont)
 Photons interact in cavity and wall
 Chose wall material that has similar
radiation absorption properties as
tissue (similar Z)
 Cavity is very small
 doesn’t change angular and velocity
distributions of electrons produced
 “Electronic equilibrium” exists in cavity
 (# e- stopping = # e- starting in cavity)
 requires wall thickness > range of
secondary e

24
Bragg-Gray (cont)
 Ionizations occur in the gas
 Can measure the charge (Q)
liberated.
 Energy required to ionize the gas:
eV J
W = 33.85 = 33.85 ( for air )
ion pair C

25
Bragg-Gray (cont)
 Then the dose to the gas is:

Q
D gas  W Gas e1
Wall
m gas e2

 where
 Q = coulombs of charge liberated
 W = average ionization energy for the
gas
 m = kg of gas in the cavity

26
 Example: Air-Filled Cavity
 A cavity filled with (1 cm3) air at STP
is exposed to a radiation field that
liberates 3.336x10-10 C. What is the
dose to the air?
 3  
At STP: mair  1cm 1.293 10
kg  6 m 3

  1.293 10 6 kg
 m 
3
cm 
3

 3.336 1010 C  J 3 J
Dgas   6
 33.85   8.73 10
 1.293 10 kg  C kg

27
Bragg-Gray (cont)
 We calculated the dose to the gas
 What about the dose to the medium
surrounding it?
 Assume the cavity is very small
 small enough that it does not disrupt
the electron spectrum.
 Wall thickness must be as great as
range of secondary charged particles
 but not too great to attenuate beam

28
 Bragg-Gray (cont)
 Then energy absorbed per unit mass
of wall is related to that absorbed per
unit mass of gas by:
N gW
Dw  Dg  Ga
s e1
 where
m e2 Wa
ll
Dw is the dose to the wall
Dg is the dose to the gas
Ng is the number of ions produced in the gas
W is eV required to produce an ion pair
m is the mass of gas in the cavity

Note - this special case is where the wall

and gas are the same type of material 29
Bragg-Gray (cont)
 If gas and wall don’t have same
atomic composition, slight
modification is required:
e1
ll
Wa
Gas
Dg S w N gWS w
Dw   e2
Sg mS g
 where Sg,w are the mass stopping powers of
the wall and the gas the cavity and gas
pressure must be small

30
 Example: Carbon-Wall
 1 cm3 of air in a block of carbon is
exposed to 60Co  producing 3x10-8 C of
charge.
 What is the absorbed dose to the carbon?

kg  m 3

at STP mair  3

 

 1cm 1.293 3 10
m 
6

cm 

3 
 1.293  10 6
kg


 Mean mass stopping power ratio for 60

Co 
in carbon relative to air (Table 6.1,
Cember text) ~ 1.001

31
 8
3 10 C  J
Dcarbon  3  33.85 1.001
1.293 10 kg  C
J
 0.786
kg
 786 mGy
 Therefore, we can measure the
ionizations in a gas and relate it to dose
to the medium.
Bragg-Gray (cont)
 If neutrons are present, the wall
must be at least as thick as the
maximum energy range of any
secondary charged recoil nuclei
produced by the nuclear
interactions.
 Chambers that meet these
conditions can be used to measure
absorbed dose to the medium

33
Kerma
ns
lectro trons
 Sum of the initial kinetic energies Ph o to e
ton e
le c
n pair
s
Comp n-Positro
(per unit mass) of all charged ro
Elect red nuclei
e
Scatt
particles produced by the radiation
 This is regardless of where the energy is
deposited
 Bremsstrahlung photons are not counted,
whether they escape or not
 Annihilation radiation is not counted,
regardless of fate of annihilation photons
 Initial positron, if primary ionizing

particle, is counted

34
 Energy Transfer
Two Stage Process - Kerma and Absorbed Dose

h’
Scattered photon
h Primary ionizing particle
(pe, cs electron, e+e- pairs,
scattered nuclei (neutrons)

Quantity of
transferred
energy is called
Kerma (J/kg) h”

35
Clarification on Kerma
 Etr is just the kinetic energy
received by charged particles in a
specified volume V, regardless of
where or how they spend the
energy
d E tr d tr
K  ( ICRU , 1980 )
dm dm
 Kerma is therefore the expectation
value of the energy transferred to
charged particles per unit mass at a
point of interest.
36
Relating Kerma & Absorbed Dose
 Kerma
 a measure of kinetic energy transferred at a
point in space.
 Absorbed dose is more “interesting”.
 Energy is transferred in the medium
 not all is retained there.
 absorbed dose is the energy retained in the
medium brought about by the ionizations along
the track of the charged particle.
 Kerma and Absorbed Dose do not take
place at the same location

37
 Calculating Absorbed Dose

d E ab
D
dm
 dab is the mean energy “imparted” by the
ionizing radiation into a mass, dm.
 Mass should be sufficiently small so that the
absorbed dose is defined at a point, but not so small
that statistical fluctuations become important

38
 Example: Photons in Tissue
 Consider an example of photon
fluence incident on a slab of tissue.
 Two cases:
 Constant fluence throughout slab
 Normally attenuated fluence in slab

39
 No Attenuation of Photon Beam, Φ
Constant
Range R

100 100 100 100

A B C D E F G

Number of electron tracks set in motion by photon

interaction
 Φ constant with depth (small # interactions)

 Same # electrons set in motion in each square

 i.e., interactions per volume constant through target

40
 Absorbed Dose and Kerma
100 100 100 100 100
And so on…

A B C D E F G

kerma

Absorbed dose

Build up region Electronic equilibrium

depth

41
When Beam Unattenuated…
 Same number of electron tracks
set in motion in each square
 Example: square D is traversed by 400 tracks
 Find that ionization in D is the same as total
ionization started in A
 absorbed dose is proportional to ionization

produced in each square

 Dose reaches a maximum at R
 Kerma constant with depth, equals absorbed
dose beyond R

42
Attenuated Beam
 What happens if the beam is
attenuated as it traverses the
volume?
 That is, the number of electron
tracks set in motion in each square
is reduced as you go deeper into
the tissue.

43
 Absorbed Dose and Kerma
100 95 90 86 82
78

A B C D E F G

Absorbed dose
kerma

In this region there is not

strict electronic equilibrium

Build up region Equilibrium thickness

depth

44
Attenuation of Photon Beam
 Beam attenuation means Φ
decreases with depth.
 Dose increases to a maximum (at
maximum range of particle)
overshoots, then tracks, kerma.

45
Attenuation of Photons in Tissue
Isotope Maximum Dose Beam Attenuation
Depth (% of original
( mm in Tissue) beam)
137
Cs 2 1
60
Co 5 2
6 MV 15 6

CPE will generally exist in a uniform medium at a

point more than the maximum range for the
secondary charged particles from the boundary
of the medium
46