A new approach for calculating internal dose estimates was developed through the use of a more realistic computational model of the human body. The present technique shows the capability to build a patient-specific phantom with tomography data (a voxel-based phantom) for the simulation of radiation transport and energy deposition using Monte Carlo methods such as in the MCNP-4B code. MCNP-4B absorbed fractions for photons in the mathematical phantom of Snyder et al. agreed well with reference values. Results obtained through radiation transport simulation in the voxel-based phantom, in general, agreed well with reference values. Considerable discrepancies, however, were found in some cases due to two major causes: differences in the organ masses between the phantoms and the occurrence of organ overlap in the voxel-based phantom, which is not considered in the mathematical phantom.

This paper describes the development of a tomographic model of a rat developed using CT images of an adult male Wistar rat for radiation transport studies. It also presents calculations of absorbed fractions (AFs) under internal photon and electron sources using this rat model and the Monte Carlo code MCNP. All data related to the developed phantom were made available for the scientific community as well as the MCNP inputs prepared for AF calculations in that phantom and also all estimated AF values, which could be used to obtain absorbed dose estimates--following the MIRD methodology--in rats similar in size to the presently developed model. Comparison between the rat model developed in this study and that published by Stabin et al (2006 J. Nucl. Med. 47 655) for a 248 g Sprague-Dawley rat, as well as between the estimated AF values for both models, has been presented.

A new approach for calculating internal dose estimates was developed through the use of a more realistic computational model of the human body. The study demonstrates the capability of building a patient-specific phantom with voxel-based data for the simulation of radiation transport and energy deposition using Monte Carlo methods such as the MCNP-4B code. MCNP-4B was used to calculate absorbed fractions for photons in a voxel-based phantom, and values were compared to reference values from traditional phantoms used for many years. Results obtained in general agreed well with previous values, but considerable differences were found in some cases due to two major causes; differences in the organ masses between the phantoms and the occurrence of organ overlap in the voxel-based phantom (which is not well modeled in the mathematical phantoms). These new techniques offer promise of developing a new generation of more realistic phantoms for internal, as well as external, dose assessment. The principal area of implementation in internal dose assessment should be the development of patient-specific dose estimates in nuclear medicine therapy, such as radioimmunotherapy (RIT). However, as new voxel-based phantoms for different individuals can be developed, they may also be used with the techniques developed here to derive new absorbed fractions and replace the traditional values usedfor other applications in internal and external dose assessment, which have been based on mathematical constructs that are not always very representative of real human organs.