Use of thermoluminescent dosimeters for measuring dose distribution with high spatial resolution in partial-body irradiation of small animals

Abstract

During the last few years partial-body irradiation techniques have become more extensively used in several types of radiobiological experiments, such as studies of the radiosensitivity of individual organs and tumours, studies on the carcinogenic action of collimated radiation beams, etc. Such techniques entail the use of lead shields of various shapes, in order to achieve the best approximation to the ideal of zero-dose in the shielded tissues. Unfortunately, scattered radiation coming from the adjacent unshielded parts of the body cannot be prevented from reaching the shielded regions and giving there a more or less significant dose. In order to undertake a detailed study of the resulting dose distribution in small animals such as mice, dosimeters with a very high spatial resolution are required. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) are very useful devices in this respect. Modern sintered TLDs (either pure or Teflon-mixed) are quite small and easy to handle. Some of them, such as LiF and BeO, are also tis...