Dependence of the probability of biological effects per hit, induced by radiation emitted by ²²²Rn, from alpha particle energies and the geometry of tracheobronchial tree

Abstract

Biological effects of radiation in terms of their effect on living cells are considered in this work. In dosimetry of the human lung exist the need to include the influence of the biological effects. The aim of this work is to calculate the probability of biological effects (transformation cell and production of lesion) per hit induced by alpha particle radiation on sensitive cells of human lung. Probability was calculated by applying the analytical model cylinder bifurcation (Nikezić et al., Int J Radiat Biol 79(3):175-180, 2003; Nikezić and Yu, Radiat Environ Biophys 42:49-53, 2003) which was created to simulate the geometry of human lung with the geometric distribution of cell nuclei in the airway wall of the tracheobronchial tree. This analytical model of the human traheobronchial tree represent the exstension of the ICRP66 model, and follows it as much as possible. Reported probabilities are calculated for various targets and alpha particle energies in order to show dependence of the probability of biological effects (transformation cell and production of lesion) per hit from alpha particle energies and the geometry of tracheobronchial tree for the human lung. © 2011 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.