Specific issues in small animal dosimetry and irradiator calibration

Abstract

Purpose: In response to the increased risk of radiological terrorist attack, a network of Centers for Medical Countermeasures against Radiation (CMCR) has been established in the United States, focusing on evaluating animal model responses to uniform, relatively homogenous whole- or partial-body radiation exposures at relatively high dose rates. The success of such studies is dependent not only on robust animal models but on accurate and reproducible dosimetry within and across CMCR. To address this issue, the Education and Training Core of the Duke University School of Medicine CMCR organised a one-day workshop on small animal dosimetry. Topics included accuracy in animal dosimetry accuracy, characteristics and differences of cesium-137 and X-ray irradiators, methods for dose measurement, and design of experimental irradiation geometries for uniform dose distributions. This paper summarises the information presented and discussed.

Conclusions: Without ensuring accurate and reproducible dosimetry the development and assessment of the efficacy of putative countermeasures will not prove successful. Radiation physics support is needed, but is often the weakest link in the small animal dosimetry chain. We recommend: (i) A user training program for new irradiator users, (ii) subsequent training updates, and (iii) the establishment of a national small animal dosimetry center for all CMCR members.

Keywords::

• small animal dosimetry
• γ- and X-ray irradiators
• irradiator calibration
• radiation physics

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the participants in the ‘‘Small Animal Dosimetry: Current State and Future Directions’’ Workshop held on 20 May 2010. These include: Marjan Boerma (UAMS), June Brickey, Rita-Marie McFadden, Adeeb Rahman (UNC Chapel Hill), Xiuhong Cao, John Chute, Divino Deoliveira, Rat Gunasingha, Lauren Jackson, Irene Li, Sarah Meadows, Ross McGurk, Qiong Qiu, Julie Sullivan, Greta Tonecheva, Minsi Zhang, Ping Zhang (DUMC) and Tom Seed. Special thanks to Joel Ross, PhD, for organising the Workshop. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grant U19AI067798.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notice of Acknowledgement

This paper Specific Issues in Small Animal Dosimetry and Irradiator Calibration, was supposed to be part of the Special Issue published in August 2011 titled ‘‘Overview of research from the Centers for Medical Countermeasures against Radiation’’. Due to an error on the part of the publishers, the paper was omitted. The publisher wishes to apologize to the authors and readers for any inconvenience caused.