Designing an improved model of the adult female ICRP reference phantom dedicated to mammography procedure

Mammography is an x-ray-based imaging method to examine breast abnormalities. Since low-energy photons are used in mammography, doses to different organs would depend strongly on the phantom posture and anatomy. Until now, a few studies have been performed on doses delivered to different organs during mammography. However, in none of them, the correct posture of the patient has been considered. In the present study, the effect of accurate patient positioning, on doses to organs in the chest region were investigated through Monte Carlo simulations. The results show the rotation of the phantom head, may affect organ doses up to 60%. Also, ignoring the head in dosimetry calculations changes scattering effects and causes dose uncertainty of about 8% for these organs. Moreover, according to the obtained results, not compressing the breast causes serious dose misestimation. Finally, using developed phantoms dedicated for mammography, total doses received by different organs have been calculated for the tube voltages of 25, 28, 30 and 35 kVp and for craniocaudal and mediolateral oblique views.