Give the four important quantities and their respective special unit:

Quantity Special Unit

Exposure Coulomb/Kilogram (C/Kg)
Absorbed Dose Gray (Gy)
Equivalent Dose Sievert (Sv)
Activity Becquerel (Bq)
The radiation quantity which is used to measure the amount of radiation received by a
radiation worker is Equivalent Dose
A person works in a nuclear power plant. He is exposed to nuclear radiation which has
the quality factor of 10. If this person receives 10 Gy, his equivalent radiation dose
would be 100 Sv
Given: Solution:
D = 10 Gy H = DQ
Q = 10 = 10 Gy (10)
= 100 Sv
One roentgen is equal to 2.58 x 10-4 C/Kg
500 Gray (Gy) is equal to 50,000 rad
Solution:
500 Gy (100 rad/1 Gy) = 50,000 rad
The quantity which is the ionization of x-ray or gamma-ray photons in air is called
Exposure
1,000 mR = 1 R
Solution:
1,000 mR (10-3 R/1 mR) = 1 R
10 rems equals 100 mSv
Solution:
10 rems [1 mSv/(1/10) rem] = 100 mSv
One Gigabecquerel (GBq) = 1 x 106 kilobecquerel (KBq)
Solution:
1 GBq (109 Bq/1 GBq) (1 KBq/103 Bq) = 1 x 106 KBq
200 Joules (J) /Kg of absorbed dose is equal to 200 Gray (Gy)
The number of atomic disintegrations per unit time is called Activity
A 500-gram material receives an absorbed dose of 400 Gy. The energy receive by the
material is 200 Joule (J)
Given: Solution:
m = 500g = 0.5 Kg D = E/m
D = 400 Gy E = D/m
= 400 Gy/0.5 Kg
= 200 Joule (J)
The energy imparted by ionizing radiation per unit mass of absorbing material is called
Absorbed Dose
One (1) Curie (Ci) is equal to 3.7 x 1010 Becquerel (Bq)
The exposure rate at a distance from x-ray source is 20 mR/s. The exposure at that
distance after 1 minute would be 1,200 mR
Given: Solution:
X0 = 20 mR/s X0 = X/t
t = 1 minute = 60s X = X0t
= 20 mR/s(60s) = 1,200 mR
The quality factor (Q) for x-rays, gamma-rays & electrons is 1 (one)
In diagnostic radiology, 200 rad is approximately equal to 200 rem
A certain organ received an absorbed dose of 5 Gy in 30 minutes. The dose rate in (cGy/
hr) is 1,000 cGy/hr
Given: Solution:
D = 5 Gy = 500 cGy D0 = D/t
t = 30 minutes = 0.5 hr = 500 cGy/0.5 hr
= 1,000 cGy/hr
100 cGy = 1 Gy
1 mCi = 1 x 10-3 Ci
The number of ion pairs formed per unit path length is called Specific Ionization
Bremsstrahlung is a German word which means braking radiation
One micron is equivalent to one (1) micrometer
The energy transferred by ionizing radiation per unit path length of the interacting
medium is called Linear Energy Transfer (LET)
Generally, more than 99% of the interaction of electrons with matter is the production of
Heat or Infrared
The three factors affecting attenuation are Energy of the beam, Atomic number of
interacting material, and Density of interacting material
x-rays & gamma-rays are ionizing radiations which have low ionization rates and very
long range
Differential absorption is the characteristic of an x-ray image resulting from the
differences between those x-rays that are absorbed & those that are transmitted
Attenuation is the reduction of x-ray beam intensity as it penetrates through the
thickness of tissue
Anatomic structures with high x-ray absorption are called Radioopaque structures
Compton effect interaction results in ionization of the target atom, change in photon
direction, & reduction of photon energy
The electron removed from the atom during photoelectric effect is called a Photoelectron
Photodisintegration involves x-ray energies greater than 7 MeV
Specific ionization and linear energy transfer are Directly proportional
When an outer shell electrons fills the vacancy in the inner shell, a Characteristic x-ray
is emitted
Bremsstrahlung radiation can be considered radiation resulting from braking of
projectile electrons by the nucleus
The two types of x-rays produced in an x-ray tube are Bremsstrahlung radiation and
Characteristic radiation
The two most important mechanisms in diagnostic radiology by which x/gamma-ray
photons interact with matter are Compton effect and Photoelectric effect
The interaction in which low energy x-rays excite a target atom is Classical scattering
In Compton effect, moderate x-rays ionizes outer shell electrons of the target atoms
The Photoelectric effect is an x-ray absorption interaction in which the x-ray photon is
not scattered but totally absorbed
The minimum energy of the incident x-ray photons required to cause pair production is
1.022 MeV
In Photodisintegration interaction, a high energy photon is absorbed by the target
nucleus, and a nuclear fragment is emitted
Anatomic structures with high x-ray transmission are called Radiolucent structures
The least penetrating of the particulate radiations is the Alpha particles
The maximum distance traversed by an electron before losing all its energy is Range
The energy of particulate radiation is in a form of Kinetic Energy
In the diagnostic range, the x-ray photons have energies up to 150 KeV