Technical note: The UF/MSK pediatric mesh-based computational human phantom library: applications to organ dosimetry in computed tomography

Abstract Objective. To develop a mesh-based computational human phantom library of pediatric males and females that encompass the body size distributions as seen in the current U.S. population. Approach. Using the mesh-type pediatric reference computational phantoms (MRCPs) of International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 156 as a starting point, the pediatric University of Florida/Memorial Sloan-Kettering (UF/MSK) phantoms were constructed with standing heights (SHs), total body masses (TBMs), and secondary anthropometric parameters representative of the United States population. Body morphometry targets were derived from data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The phantoms were created using a combination of in-house Python scripting and manual adjustment of the reference models’ subcutaneous fat layer. A corresponding version of the library with phantoms in an ‘arms up’ position appropriate for computed tomography dosimetry simulation was also constructed. Main results. A large library of 153 male and 131 female pediatric mesh-type computational human phantoms was created in this study. For the males, SH ranged from 95 to 185 cm and the TBM ranged from 10 to 125 kg. For the females, SH ranged from 95 to 175 cm and the TBM ranged from 10 to 115 kg. These 284 phantoms, developed from the ICRP 5 year, 10 year, and 15 year male and female MRCPs, are representative of US children within the age range of 2–18 years. An accompanying NIT (newborn-infant-toddler) series—59 males and 59 females—provides a unique phantom library for patients under the age of 2 years down to birth. Representative organ doses are shown across samples of the pediatric UF/MSK phantom library for the Canon Aquilion One Genesis scanner under fixed tube current imaging.