Simulation of the relative damaging effects of Auger cascades with gel scintillators

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this work is to study the relative damaging effects of DNA-incorporated radionuclides by analyzing the behavior of the liquid-scintillation counting efficiency in volumes of nanometer size.

Methods: A liquid scintillation counter can detect changes in the micelle size when different percentages of an aqueous solution containing an Auger-electron-emitting radionuclide are incorporated to a gel scintillator. The counting efficiency can be used as an indicator of the nature of the stochastic processes occurring within the micelle structure.

Results: Because a large variation in the micelle size only perturbates the counting efficiency slightly, the accuracy of the method is poor. The application of tracing methods, which involve the calculation of the Auger cascades and the deposition of energy within nanometric spheres, can improve the accuracy of the results.

Conclusions: Some steps in the complete simulation of the damaging efficiency can be obviated with the use of a tracer.

Keywords:

• DNA damage
• double-strand breaks
• microdosimetry
• radionuclides