Homogeneous Phantom Equivalent Chest for Examination of Image Quality Testing in Pediatric Chest X-Ray

The pediatrics’ chest X-rays using digital radiography are considered important because of the high rates of this test as well as the increased sensitivity of children to ionizing radiation compared with adults. Therefore, clarification of radiographic methods that reduce the dose and maintain or even increase the quality of the image is of great importance and thus of interest to researchers. The goal of the present study was to build a chest equivalent homogeneous phantom to evaluate the image quality in radiographic tests in four age groups of children based on the ICRP103 age category classification.

The X-ray spectrum approved by IPEM was used as the input x-ray source in the Monte Carlo code. The geometric phantom equivalent to the ORNL body was then simulated to calculate the absorb dose using Monte Carlo code. The results of the simulation were used to construct equivalent chest phantom for children.

In order to validate and verify the performance of the equivalent phantoms simulated for each age group, the attenuation and dispersion of the phantom at the field were measured. For this purpose, the percentages of the depth dose in the simulation conditions was compared with those of the experimental results, which can be used to examine the attenuation in different layers. The calculated error was less than 5% on the depth dose for the Monte Carlo and the experimental space and it indicates Confirmation of simulated program. After simulation, the phantom was made in similar dimensions with different thicknesses of the Plexiglas pediatrics age ranges.

It seems that the phantom designed in the current study can be used to assess the doses of children in different age groups. It can also be used with local fitting for image quality control tools, such as contrast, resolution, etc, for evaluating the parameters related to the quality of the image in the actual condition.