In vivo measurement of 241Am in the lungs confounded by activity deposited in other organs.

Radioactive material deposited in multiple organs of the body is likely to confound a result of an in vivo measurement performed over the lungs, the most frequently monitored organ for occupational exposure. The significance of this interference was evaluated by measuring anthropometric torso phantoms containing lungs, liver, skeleton, and axillary lymph nodes, each with a precisely known quantity of 241Am uniformly distributed in the organs. Arrays of multiple high-resolution germanium detectors were positioned over organs within the torso phantom containing 241Am or over proximal organs without activity to determine the degree of measurement confounding due to photons emitted from other source organs. A set of four mathematical response functions describes the measured count rate with detectors positioned over each of the relevant organs and 241Am contained in the measured organ or one of the other organs selected as a confounder. Simultaneous solution of these equations by matrix algebra, where the diagonal terms of the matrix are calibration factors for a direct measurement of activity in an organ and the off-diagonal terms reflect the contribution (i.e., interference or cross-talk) produced by 241Am in a confounding organ, yields the activity deposited in each of the relevant organs. The matrix solution described in this paper represents a method for adjusting a result of 241Am measured directly in one organ for interferences that may arise from 241Am deposited elsewhere and represents a technically valid procedure to aid in evaluating internal dose based upon in vivo measurements for those radioactive materials known to deposit in multiple organs.