Development of a Liver Phantom Based on Computed Tomography Images for Dosimetric Purpose

Introduction: The present study was conducted with the aim of designing a liver phantom for dosimetry. To benchmark the results obtained by the developed liver phantom, another method was applied for the dosimetry of a real liver tissue using imaging. Materials and Methods: For the purpose of the study, a real liver tissue was converted into a phantom based on thegram-molecular weight of the components of human liver tissue, mass percentage, and density, and then simulated by MCNPX code for dosimetry. The real liver tissue was contoured using the computed tomography DICOM images of the abdomen region. Subsequently, the accurate geometry of the segmented liver tissue was generated and simulated by MATLAB software and MCNPX code for dosimetric purposes. Then, the obtained data were transferred into the MCNPX code. Results: Equivalent dose was measured in total and for each component of the liver phantom and separated liver tissue. The results obtained from these two simulations were compared with each other to validate the efficiency of the phantom and evaluated the differences. Conclusion: The comparison of the equivalent doses obtained from the prepared equivalent liver phantom and the real liver tissue revealed the applicability of the liver phantom as a virtual liver for dosimetry.