Radiation dose conversion

[Jordi Huguet]

Hello,

First of all sorry for my poor understanding of radiation physics since it's not my natural working field. I was wondering if is feasible and makes sense to convert available DICOM header information to effective dose estimators fields such as:

• (0040,0316) Organ Dose
• (0018,115e) Image And Fluoroscopy Area Dose Product
• (0018,1074) Radionuclide Total Dose

Specifically, I understand those dosage values are defined as absorbed dose attributes (energy absorbed per unit of mass as a consequence of a ionizing radiation event). Is the assumption right?

If so, I consider that these values can be used to compute equivalent absorbed radiation dose (absorbed dose depending on the potential damage/effect of the radiation type) as the product of the absorbed dose value provided by DICOM information by a radiation quality factor depending on the energy type: i.e. x-rays, gamma rays, ...). Radiation quality factor is also known as Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE). At practical, level this is a direct conversion since radiation quality factor value for medical imaging radiation energy type is 1.

Again, the resulting product can be used afterwards to calculate the effective dose (estimate of the stochastic effect that a radiation event may have on a human being) multiplying organ doses by a certain "tissue weighting factor" (depending on the affected organ's relative radio-sensitivity: ). 

Finally, I inferred that by adding up effective dose products I'm able to calculate whole-body effective dose to an individual. Is that right? 

Many thanks in advanced and kind regards,

Jordi