ABSTRACT
Recent advances in computer-generated phantoms, especially those described in Chapter 5, have found many important applications in medical imaging and dosimetry calculations. In medical imaging, a computer-generated phantom that realistically models the anatomical structures and physiological functions of human or a small animal, when combined with methods that computational phantom the physics involved in the imaging process and characteristics of the imaging system, form a set of unique simulation tools that provides imaging data that closely mimic clinical and experimental image data. Most importantly, the ability to insert known features and abnormalities in the computer-generated phantom and simulated data offers “true” status of subject that is dif cult to obtain from clinical and experimental animal image data. The knowledge of the “truth” allows rigorous evaluation of the effects of image degradation factors in the imaging process, the imaging system, and image reconstruction and processing methods on medical images. Computer-generated phantoms with their realistic anatomy allow accurate calculations of dose to various tissue organs from external beams of radiation in radiation oncology and diagnostic radiology and internally distributed radioactivity found in nuclear medicine, brachytherapy, and radioimmunotherapy.
