title: Assessment of mammography spectra using compton spectrometry techniques.
abstract: The quality control of mammography units is necessary to reduce the dose imparted to women as much as possible. An accurate characterisation of the primary X-ray spectra is very useful for this purpose. Primary spectra can be obtained using Compton spectrometry techniques. In this work, a commercial spectrometer used to characterise a mammography X-ray tube has been simulated using the Monte Carlo method by means of the MCNP code. Using the developed model, a Response matrix is obtained. Owing to the fact that this matrix is ill-conditioned, the inversion is not a simple process. This problem has been solved using the truncated singular value decomposition method. Results obtained when this methodology was applied have been compared with theoretical X-ray spectra.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Nuclear, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Apartado 22012, E-46071 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Burgos
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gallardo
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Puchades
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Verdú
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ródenas
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Villaescusa
mesh_terms: D001822:Body Burden; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission / Q000379:methods*