Medical Physics Seminar - Monday, November 2, 2009

QUICK LINKS: [Medical Physics Home Page] [Seminar Home Page]

RADIATION:

Radiation Units, Our Exposure to Radiation, The Effects of Ionizing Radiation, & Radiation Safety in Medical Imaging

Frank N. Ranallo, Ph.D.

Associate Professor (CHS)

Department of Medical Physics

UW-School of Medicine and Public Health

Madison, WI

A proper understanding of ionizing radiaiton and its effects is important to practically all areas of Medical Physics. This seminar will cover a widge range of topics in a concise manner accessible to the beginning graduate student and hopefully also interesting to those more experienced.

The talk will begin with a discussion of ionizing radiation and its SI and conventional units for exposure, absorbed dose, equivalent dose, effective dose, and dose area product; and the use of radiation weighting factors and tissue weighting factors.  Next, some perspectives on radiation levels including levels of background radiation and levels at which harm might be expected will be explored, along with the amounts of radiation that we are exposed to due to various natural and man-made sources.  The heart of the talk will explain the detrimental effects of radiation including stochastic effects (cancer and genetic effects), deterministic effects (radiation sickness, cataracts, skin burns, and hair loss), and effects on the conceptus during pregnancy.  As part of the discussion of cancer risks from radiation, the linear no-threshold hypothesis will be analyzed.  The talk will conclude with occupational and public dose limits, and ways to minimize dose to the patient and to the clinician in the medical imaging setting.

Location: 1345 Health Sciences Learning Center (HSLC)

Time:  4:00pm-5:00pm

Refreshments will be provided prior to the talk

QUICK LINKS: [Medical Physics Home Page] [Seminar Home Page]