Hybrid computational pregnant female phantom construction for radiation dosimetry applications

Abstract

The number of patients undergoing diagnostic radiology and radiation therapy procedures has increased drastically owing to improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment, and consequently, patient survival. However, the risk of secondary malignancies owing to radiation exposure remains a matter of concern. We previously published three hybrid computational fetal phantoms, which contained 27 fetal organs, as a starting point for developing the whole hybrid computational pregnant phantom set, which is the final objective of this study. An International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) reference female voxel model was converted to a non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surface model to construct a hybrid computational female phantom as a pregnant mother for each fetal model. Both fetal and maternal organs were matched with the ICRP- 89 reference data. To create a complete standard pregnant computational phantom set at 20, 30, and 35 weeks of pregnancy, the model mother’s reproductive organs were removed, and fetal phantoms with appropriate placental and uterine models were added to the female pelvis using a 3D-modeling software. With the aid of radiological image sets that had originally been used to construct the fetal models, each fetal position and rotation inside the uterus were carefully adjusted to represent the real fetal locations inside the uterus. The major abdominal soft tissue organs below the diaphragm, namely the small intestine, large intestine, liver, gall bladder, stomach, pancreas, uterus, and urinary bladder, were removed from non-pregnant females. The resulting fetal phantom was positioned in the appropriate location, matching the original radiological image sets. An obstetrician-gynecologist reviewed the complete internal anatomy of all fetus phantoms and the pregnant women for accuracy, and suggested changes were implemented as needed. The remaining female anatomical tissues were reshaped and modified to accommodate the location of the fetus inside the uterus. This new series of hybrid computational pregnant phantom models provides realistic anatomical details that can be useful in evaluating fetal radiation doses in pregnant patients undergoing diagnostic imaging or radiotherapy procedures where realistic fetal computational human phantoms are required.