Determination of mass attenuation coefficient for common prosthetic materials utilizing Monte Carlo simulation, theoretical analysis, and XCOM software

Abstract The accurate calculation of radiation doses in radiotherapy necessitates precise knowledge of the mass attenuation coefficients ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> ) of prosthetic materials. Thus, this study aims to determine the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> of widely used prosthetic materials through theoretical methods, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, and the XCOM photon cross-section database for the first time. Calculations were performed for the following medical sources: Pd-103, I-125, Cs -131, Tc-99m, Ba-133, Ir-192, Au-198, Cs-137, Ra-226 and Co-60 with a range of energies between 10 keV and 2 MeV. Outcomes reveal that in all three datasets increasing the energy reduces the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> values for all provided materials. For instance, this value for MMA and PEG and MCNPX simulations, theoretical calculation, XCOM evaluation varies from 0.41911 to 0.09006 cm 2 .g −1 , 0.39194 to 0.08583 cm 2 .g −1 , 0.39790 to 0.08715 cm 2 .g −1 , and 0.45099 to 0.09029 cm 2 .g −1 , 0.42214 to 0.09050 cm 2 .g −1 , 0.40040 to 0.08090 cm 2 .g - , 1 respectively. Furthermore, for high density prosthetic materials like Steel, Titania, and Zinc oxide, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> is higher specifically at low energy regions compared to low density prosthetic materials, while increasing the energy from 0.021 to 1.25 MeV, a different scenario is recorded. Moreover, MCNPX results exhibit higher deviations specifically in high energy regions compared to other approaches. However, this approach remains as accurate for prosthetic attenuation evaluation. The results of this study present a detailed classification of a wide range of prosthetic materials in terms of their applications and energy levels, serving as a significant reference for future research.