Handbook of glandular tissue doses in mammography. Final report March 1985

This Handbook contains data from which absorbed dose to glandular tissue in the breast (glandular tissue dose) can be estimated for mammographic procedures. The breast (excluding the skin) is a composite of adipose (i.e., fatty) and glandular (i.e., other soft) tissues. The glandular tissue is the tissue considered at risk for breast cancer. The intent of the Handbook is to permit the user to compute glandular tissue dose for various techniques in mammography as a function of breast compression, breast size, breast composition, and the quality of the x-ray beam. The method used to compute most of the basic data was a radiation transport calculation using a specialized version of a computer code developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Warner, 1973). The results of the calculations were then converted into the Handbook entries, using the specific characteristics of current mammographic techniques. Additional data are reproduced from previous work of others