A1 Journal article (refereed)
Technical note : Simulation of lung counting applications using Geant4 (2023)

Jutila, H., Greenlees, P., Torvela, T., & Muikku, M. (2023). Technical note : Simulation of lung counting applications using Geant4. Physica Medica, 108, Article 102573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2023.102573

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Jutila, Henri; Greenlees, Paul; Torvela, Tiina; Muikku, Maarit

Journal or series: Physica Medica

ISSN: 1120-1797

eISSN: 1724-191X

Publication year: 2023

Publication date: 30/03/2023

Volume: 108

Article number: 102573

Publisher: Elsevier

Publication country: Italy

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2023.102573

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/86257

Additional information: Technical note.

Abstract

A Geant4 simulation package has been developed to investigate and test detector configurations for lung counting applications. The objective of this study was to measure radiation emitted from the human body and to make a qualitative comparison of the results of the simulation with an experiment. Experimental data were measured from a plastic phantom with a set of lungs containing 241Am activity. For comparison, simulations in which 241Am activity was uniformly distributed inside the lungs of the ICRP adult reference computational phantom were made. The attenuation of photons by the chest wall was simulated and from this photopeak efficiency and photon transmission were calculated as a function of photon energy. The transmission of 59.5 keV gamma rays, characteristic of the decay of 241Am, was determined from the computational phantom as a function of the angular position of the detector. It was found that the simulated detector response corresponds well with that from an experiment. The simulated count rate below 100 keV was 10.0(7) % greater compared to the experimental measurement. It was observed that 58.3(4) % of photons are attenuated for energies below 100 keV by the chest wall. In the simulation, the transmission of 59.5 keV gamma rays varied from 13.8(2) % to 38.0(4) % as a function of the angular position of the detector. The results obtained from the simulations show a satisfactory agreement with experimental data and the package can be used in the development of future body counting applications and enables optimization of the detection geometry.

Keywords: radiation doses; radioactive substances; lungs; measuring methods; gamma radiation; radiation physics; detectors; simulation

Free keywords: lung counting; voxel phantom; Geant4 simulation; low-energy gamma-ray spectra

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2023

JUFO rating: 1