Influence of voxel size on specific absorbed fractions and S-values in a mouse voxel phantom

Photon and electron specific absorbed fractions (SAFs) and S-values have been evaluated using mouse voxel phantoms. In voxel phantoms, it is important to choose the voxel size carefully since it affects the accuracy of results. In this study, two mouse voxel phantoms were constructed, with cubic voxels, one with 0.1-mm sides and the other with 0.4-mm sides. The sources were considered to be distributed uniformly in the main organs and the radiation transport was simulated using the Monte Carlo code EGS4. It was found that the effect of voxel size on SAFs for self-irradiation was not high (<10 %) for electrons and photons. However, it was appreciable for cross-irradiation especially for electrons. The effect of voxel size was investigated on S-values for some beta emitters such as (131)I, (153)Sm, (188)Re and (90)Y.