Internal Dosimetry of the Pregnant Female: Development of Pregnant Female Biokinetic Models and Implementation of Biokinetics in Consort With UF’s Pregnant Female Hybrid Computational Phantom Series to Determine Organ Doses to The Developing Fetus

Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/05/2015
2:00 pm

Will Godwin, PhD student

Over the past decade, the growing concern for radio-induced carcinogenesis has driven the dramatic improvement of phantoms used for computational dose estimation in the mother and fetus. To make use of the newly enhanced computational phantoms for internal dosimetry, the biokinetics of the fetomaternal system are in need of vast improvement. The current work makes efforts to resolve this issue by (1) developing fetomaternal systemic biokinetic models for all elements of current radiological interest to the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), (2) developing fetomaternal systemic biokinetic models for currently used radiopharmaceuticals, and (3) combine newly created fetomaternal systemic biokinetic models with the UF family of hybrid pregnant female phantoms to calculate organ doses for several relevant internal radiation exposures. Biokinetic model development will be done iteratively. Early model iterations have been developed by adjusting the well-established biokinetics of the non-pregnant adult based on differences between the fetomaternal system and that of a non-pregnant adult human in regards to blood flow distribution, organ mass, and total body mass. Further, amniotic fluid exchange has been modeled. Future model development will include element specific adjustments based on trends demonstrated by the most recent data on fetomaternal retention.