Comparison of methods for individualized astronaut organ dosimetry: morphometry-based phantom library versus body contour autoscaling of a reference phantom

Publication date: Available online 8 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Michelle M. Sands, David Borrego, Matthew R. Maynard, Amir A. Bahadori, Wesley E. Bolch One of the hazards faced by space crew members in low-Earth orbit or in deep space is exposure to ionizing radiation. It has been shown previously that while differences in organ-specific and whole-body risk estimates due to body size variations are small for highly-penetrating galactic cosmic rays, large differences in these quantities can result from exposure to shorter-range trapped proton or solar particle event radiations. For this reason, it is desirable to use morphometrically accurate computational phantoms representing each astronaut for a risk analysis, especially in the case of a solar particle event. An algorithm was developed to automatically sculpt and scale the UF adult male and adult female hybrid reference phantom to the individual outer body contour of a given astronaut. This process begins with the creation of a laser-measured polygon mesh model of the astronaut's body contour. Using the auto-scaling program and selecting several anatomical landmarks, the UF adult male or female phantom is adjusted to match the laser-measured outer body contour of the astronaut. A dosimetry comparison study was conducted to compare the organ dose accuracy of both the autoscaled phantom and that based upon a height–weight matched phantom from the UF/NCI Computational Phantom Library. ...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - Category: Biology Source Type: research