Mass attenuation coefficient and its photon interaction derivables of some skeletal muscle relaxants

Abstract

Context: The study of photon interactions with biological materials is essential in radiation medicine and biology, nuclear technology and space research, since radioactive sources are used. Aims: A study of mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic numbers (Zeff) and electron density of some commonly used skeletal muscle relaxants. Materials and Methods: We have measured the mass attenuation some commonly used skeletal muscle relaxants such as tubocurarine chloride, gallamine triethiodide, pancuronium bromide, suxamethonium bromide and mephenesin for various gamma sources of energy ranging from 84keV to 1330 keV (170Tm, 57Co, 141Ce, 203Hg, 51Cr, 113Sn, 22Na, 137Cs, 60Co, 22Na and 60Co). The measured values agree with the theoretical values. The effective atomic numbers (Zeff) and electron density (Ne) of commonly used skeletal muscle relaxants for total and coherent, incoherent, photoelectric absorption, pair production in atomic and nuclear field photon interaction have been computed in the wide region 1keV to 100GeV using an accurate database of photon-interaction cross sections and the WinXCom program. Results: The significant variation of Zeff and Nel is due to the variations in the dominance of different interaction process in different energy regions. A comparison is also made with the single values of the Zeff and Nel provided by the program XMuDat. We have also calculated CT numbers, kerma values relative to air and dose rate for relaxants which are also not remaining constant with energy. Conclusions: The computed data of mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic numbers (Zeff) and electron density and CT numbers in the low energy region helps in visualizing the image of the biological samples and precise accuracy in treating the inhomogenity of them in medical radiology. The calculated kerma values relative to air and dose rate for relaxants are useful in radiation medicine.