Internal dose to active marrow and endosteum from radioactive iodine

This study analyses the active marrow and endosteum dose differences between the new International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) male and female reference computational phantoms and the stylised phantom for two thyroid agents. The active marrow and endosteum doses from (131)I and (123)I were calculated for 0-55 % maximum thyroid uptakes using the MCNP-4C Monte Carlo code. The biokinetic models were taken from ICRP Publication 53. To evaluate the absorbed doses to red marrow and endosteum, the deposited energy was determined for the 19 spongiosa regions and 6 medullary cavities and was mass weighted using the mass fractions available in ICRP Publication 116. The results were then compared with the published values given in ICRP Publication 53. The poor anatomic realism of the stylised phantom used in ICRP Publication 53 leads to important dose differences between the ICRP voxel phantoms and the stylised phantom. The influence of the use of different bone material was also investigated. Underestimations of ∼60% were observed for active marrow doses of the stylised phantom compared with reference voxel phantoms. The results highlight the importance of the accuracy of the shape and inter-organ distances of the anthropomorphic model used.