Ionizing Radiation and Radiation Quantities/Units Flashcards

1
Q

what are the sources of radiation?

A
  • Natural that are always present in the environment
  • Manmade created by humans for specific purposes
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2
Q

what are sources of manmade (artifical) radiation?

A
  • Consumer products containing radioactive material
  • Air travel
  • Nuclear fuel for generation of power
  • Atmospheric fallout from nuclear weapons testing
  • Nuclear power plant accidents
  • Medical Radiation
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3
Q

what are sources of natural radiation (background)?

A
  • Terrestrial radiation
  • Cosmic radiation (solar and galactic)
  • Internal radiation from radioactive atoms (also called radionuclides)
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4
Q

Terrestrial radiation

A

decay of radioactive materials in the earth (soil, water, vegetation)
- internal or through the skin

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5
Q

Cosmic radiation

A

from space (stars)
- typically beta and gamma radiation

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6
Q

Internal (ingestion, inhalation or natural)

A

decay of radioactive materials in the body naturally or through ingestion or inhalation (uranium for ingestion or inhalation, breaks down into radon)

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7
Q

Consumer product radiation

A

tobacco, building materials, older televisions, airport x-ray systems, smoke detectors and construction materials

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8
Q

Air Travel

A
  • cosmic radiation
  • depends on length, altitude and latitiude
    flying coast to coast - 0.035 mSv
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9
Q

Nuclear fuel for generation of power

A
  • small amounts of radioactive gases and liquids
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10
Q

Atmospheric Fallout from nuclear weapons testing

A
  • more than 500 nuclear weapons tests took place in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s
  • radioactive particles and gases were spread in the atmosphere
  • these particles and gases still continue to fall to the earth
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11
Q

Nuclear power plant accidents

A
  • Three mile island
  • Chernobyl
  • Fukushima
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12
Q

Medical radiation

A
  • radiography, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, etc.
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13
Q

sources of medical radiation broken up by specialty

A
  • CT - 65.2%
  • General Radiography - 8.7%
  • Nuclear Medicine - 17.4%
  • Interventional Procedures - 8.7%
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14
Q

what is the major change in sources of radiation from 1990 - 2006?

A

medical radiation went from 0.5 mSv to 3.2 mSv

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15
Q

which medical procedure is the highest source of radiation?

A

CT

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16
Q

what are the 2 largest sources of artificial radiation?

A
  • Diagnostic medical x-ray (which includes computed tomography (CT), interventional fluoroscopy, and conventional radiography or fluoroscopy)
  • Nuclear medicine procedures
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17
Q

what radiation are we unable to control?

A

natural background radiation

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18
Q

If a patient has a chest X-ray, how much exposure do they actually receive?

A

2 exposures/procedure - PA and Lateral
- approximately 0.08 mSv

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18
Q

Energy

A

the ability to do work - to move an object against resistance

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19
Q

How radiation relates to energy

A

Radiation is kinetic energy that passes from one location to another and can have many manifestations (light, heat, nuclear, electromagnetic)
- many types of radiation exist

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20
Q

what is ionizing radiation

A

Ionizing radiation is radiation with kinetic energy that has the ability to produce charged particles (ions) when passing through matter.

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21
Q

all ionizing radiation can be classified into what 2 categories?

A

Electromagnetic radiation
Particulate radiation

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22
Q

What is ionization

A
  • Conversion of atoms to ions
  • Valuable for creating images
  • Has the undesirable result of potentially producing some damage in the biologic material
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23
Q

what are 2 examples of non ionizing radiation?

A

ultrasound and MRI

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24
Q

what are photons?

A

X-ray and gamma rays - no mass no charge

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25
Q

Electromagnetic waves are characterized by their?

A

wavelength and frequency

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26
Q

what is wave particle duality

A

the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation
- this form of radiation can travel through space in the form of a wave but can interact with matter as a particle of energy

27
Q

what are forms of particulate radiation?

A
  • alpha particles
  • beta particles
  • neutrons
  • protons
28
Q

what are the characteristics of particulate radiation?

A
  • All these are subatomic particles that are ejected from atoms at very high speeds.
  • They possess sufficient kinetic energy to be capable of causing ionization by direct atomic collision.
  • No ionization occurs when the subatomic particles are at rest
29
Q

what are alpha particles?

A
  • Alpha rays
  • Emitted from nuclei of very heavy elements such as uranium and plutonium during the process of radioactive decay
  • Are simply helium nuclei (minus their electrons)
30
Q

what is the makeup of an alpha particle?

A
  • Each Alpha Particle contains two protons and two neutrons
31
Q

what is the mass and charge of an alpha particle?

A
  • Have a large mass (approximately 4 times the mass of a hydrogen atom) and a positive charge twice that of an electron
32
Q

Ability of alpha particles to penetrate matter?

A
  • Alpha particles are less penetrating than beta particles (fast electrons).
  • They lose energy quickly as they travel a short distance in biologic matter
  • Are considered virtually harmless as an external source of radiation. A piece of ordinary paper can absorb them or function as a shield.
  • As an internal source of radiation, they can be very damaging.
  • If emitted from a radioisotope deposited in the body, such as in the lungs, alpha particles can be absorbed in the relatively radiosensitive epithelial tissue and are very damaging to that tissue.
33
Q

beta particles weight and charge?

A

8000 times lighter than alpha particles and have only one unit of electrical charge (-1) as compared with the alpha’s two units of electrical charge (+2).

34
Q

beta particle characteristics

A
  • Identical to electrons except their origin; emitted from the nucleus of a radioactive atom
  • Beta particles will not interact as strongly with their surroundings as alpha particles do.
  • Capable of penetrating biologic matter to a greater depth than alpha particles with far less ionization along their paths.
35
Q

How many types of radiation do we produce? How are these x-rays produced?

A
  • 2 – characteristic and bremsstrahlung radiation
  • Characteristic is 1 value from K shell – ionizes k shell electron – replaces it
  • Bremstrahlung ranges from minimum to maximum energy – changes direction
  • X-rays use more Brems than characteristic
36
Q

What are radiation units? and why are the important?

A
  • Need to develop standards for measuring and limiting radiation exposure
  • Awareness of potential harmful effects of ionizing radiation
  • Desire of the medical community to reduce radiation exposure throughout the world by developing standards for measuring and limiting this exposure
37
Q

Radiation Exposure

A

Radiation travelling through the air
- Charge produced in a unit mass of air
- Amount of charge created/kg of air by the x-ray beam
- Used only for photons (not particulate) less than 3 MeV

38
Q

what does radiation exposure not give you information about?

A
  • how much energy is absorbed by tissues being irradiated
  • Where in the body absorption takes place
  • Tissue sensitivity to radiation
39
Q

Radiation Dose

A

radiation travelling through a medium
- energy absorbed within an object/medium

40
Q

SI unit

A

Coulomb/Kg
- coulomb is charge per kg

41
Q

Conventional unit

A

Roentgen (R) or milliroentgen (mR)

42
Q

conversion between conventional and SI units

A

1R = 2.58 x 10^4 C/kg

43
Q

Why bother with a unit that deals with radiation traveling through the air

A

attenuation processes for air, soft tissue, and H2O is very similar, meaning that a number of dosimetric experiments and measurements can take place quite easily in air to represent what might be happening in the human body.

44
Q

What is Air Kerma?

A
  • Replacing ‘Exposure’
  • Used to express how much energy is transferred/deposited from x-rays to air
    KERMA = Kinetic Energy Released in Air = Total kinetic energy released in a unit mass (kg) of air
45
Q

SI unit of Air Kerma?

A

gray (Gy) = J/kg - Joule is energy per kg

46
Q

Kerma vs. absorbed dose in X-ray?

A
  • Kerma and absorbed dose are basically the same at the diagnostic x-ray level
47
Q

Dose Area Product (DAP)

A
  • An estimation of the total amount of energy delivered to a patient (at the entrance surface) during an exposure
  • Sum of the total Air Kerma over the exposed surface area of the patient.
48
Q

DAP units

A

Expressed using Gy-cm2 or mGy-cm2

49
Q

If a patient receives an Air Kerma dose of 20 mGy over a surface area of 100 cm2, what Is the DAP?

A

2 dGy*cm^2

50
Q

What is absorbed dose? and what does it measure?

A
  • baseline quantity from which other dose units are derivded
  • absorbed does measures the amount of energy that is imparted to a medium
  • It is defined as the mean energy deposited to a medium by ionizing radiation divided by the mass of that medium
51
Q

units for absorbed dose?

A

1J/kg =1 Gy = 100 rads

52
Q

What is equivalent dose?

A
  • Absorbed dose does not differentiate between different types of radiation
  • Equal absorbed doses of different types of radiation produce different amounts of biologic damage in body tissue.
    -The concept of dose equivalence takes this biologic impact into consideration by using a specific modifying, or quality, factor to adjust the absorbed dose value.
  • Radiation Weighting Factor (WR) is a dimensionless factor (a multiplier) used for radiation protection purposes to account for differences in biologic impact among various types of ionizing radiation
53
Q

Units for equivalent dose

A

1 J/Kg = 1 Sv = 100 rems

54
Q

How do you calculate equivalent dose

A

The product of the absorbed dose (Gy) in a tissue or organ and its Radiation Weighting Factor (WR)

EqD = D x WR
Sv = Gy x WR

55
Q

What is effective dose?

A

A further measure that takes into consideration the differing sensitivities of exposed tissue to radiation
- It is the tissue-weighted sum of the equivalent doses in all specified tissues and organs of the human body and represents the stochastic health risk to the whole body
- Incorporates both the effect of the type of radiation used and the variability in radiosensitivity of the organ or body part irradiated through the use of appropriate weighting factors

56
Q

annual dose limit radiation workers

A

whole body - 20 mSv/year averaged over 5, max of 50 mSv in any single year
lens of eye 20 mSv/year averaged over 5, max of 50 mSv in any single year
skin - 500 mSv equivalent dose
hands and feet - 500 mSv equivalent dose

57
Q

annual dose limit members of the public

A

whole body - 1 mSv effective
lens of the eye - 15 mSv
skin - 50 mSv equivalent dose

58
Q

what are weighting factors?

A

Factors that determine the overall harm to those biologic components for risk of developing a radiation-induced cancer or, for the reproductive organs, the risk of genetic damage.

59
Q

how do you calculate effective dose?

A

EfD = D x Wr (radiation weighting factor) x Wt (tissue weighting factor)

60
Q

what is the tissue weighting factor?

A

Takes into account the carcinogenic sensitivity of each organ

61
Q

E.g. If the lungs receive an absorbed dose of 0.5 Gy, from exposure to alpha radiation, what is the effective dose in Sv?

A

EfD = 0.5 Gy x 20 x 0.12 = 1.2

62
Q

what are the 5 types of interaction possible between X-ray and matter?

A
  • Coherent scatter
  • Photoelectric absorption
  • Compton scatter
  • Pair production
  • Photodisintegration
63
Q

What does Photoelectric absorption depend on?

A
  • Energy (E) of the incident x-ray photons
  • Atomic number (Z) of the atoms comprising the irradiated object
  • Physical density
  • Thickness
64
Q

What causes the probability of photoelectric absorption to increase markedly?

A
  • E of the incident photon decreases
  • Z of irradiated atom increases