CALDose_X-a software tool for the assessment of organ and tissue absorbed doses, effective dose and cancer risks in diagnostic radiology

CALDose_X is a software tool that provides the possibility of calculating incident air kerma (INAK) and entrance surface air kerma (ESAK), two important quantities used in x-ray diagnosis, based on the output of the x-ray equipment. Additionally, the software uses conversion coefficients (CCs) to assess the absorbed dose to organs and tissues of the human body, the effective dose as well as the patient's cancer risk for radiographic examinations. The CCs, ratios between organ or tissue absorbed doses and measurable quantities, have been calculated with the FAX06 and the MAX06 phantoms for 34 projections of 10 commonly performed x-ray examinations, for 40 combinations of tube potential and filtration ranging from 50 to 120 kVcp and from 2.0 to 5.0 mm aluminum, respectively, for various field positions, for 29 selected organs and tissues and simultaneously for the measurable quantities, INAK, ESAK and kerma area product (KAP). Based on the x-ray irradiation parameters defined by the user, CALDose_X shows images of the phantom together with the position of the x-ray beam. By using true to nature voxel phantoms, CALDose_X improves earlier software tools, which were mostly based on mathematical MIRD5-type phantoms, by using a less representative human anatomy.