Practical nuclear medicine and utility of phantoms for internal dosimetry: XCAT compared with Zubal

Purpose: The absorbed doses for two radioisotopes, ^99mTc and ¹³¹I, between previously validated Zubal phantom and the recently developed XCAT phantom were compared. Materials and methods: GATE Monte Carlo code was used to simulate the statistical process of radiation. A XCAT phantom with voxel and matrix sizes similar to a standard Zubal phantom was generated. According to Medical International Radiation Dose formalism, specific absorbed fraction (SAF) values for photons and S-factors for beta particles were tabulated. The amounts of absorbed doses were calculated and compared in different organs. Results: The differences of gamma radiation doses, SAFs, between Zubal and XCAT are >50% in adrenal from adrenal, pancreas from pancreas and thyroid from thyroid, in lung from kidney, kidneys from lungs and in kidneys from thyroid and thyroid from kidneys. The beta radiation doses differences between Zubal and XCAT are >50% in thyroid from thyroid, bladder from bladder, kidney from kidney, liver from bladder, thyroid from bladder and kidney from thyroid. The size and distances of the organs were different between XCAT and Zubal phantoms. Denoted differences of SAF and S-factors correspond to the different organ geometries in phantoms. Conclusion: The results of absorbed doses in Zubal and XCAT phantoms are different. The variations prohibit easy comparison or interchangeability of dosimetry between these phantoms. (authors)