Medicine:F-factor (conversion factor)

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Short description: Number relating the exposure and absorbed dose of ionizing radiation

In diagnostic radiology, the F-factor is the conversion factor between exposure to ionizing radiation and the absorbed dose from that radiation. In other words, it converts between the amount of ionization in air (roentgens or, in SI units, coulombs per kilogram of absorber material) and the absorbed dose in air (rads or grays). The two determinants of the F-factor are the effective atomic number (Z) of the material and the type of ionizing radiation being considered. Since the effective Z of air and soft tissue is approximately the same, the F-factor is approximately 1 for many x-ray imaging applications. However, bone has an F-factor of up to 4, due to its higher effective Z.

Radiation-related quantities

The following table shows radiation quantities in SI and non-SI units.

Ionising radiation related quantities view  talk  edit
Quantity Unit Symbol Derivation Year SI equivalence
Activity (A) becquerel Bq s−1 1974 SI unit
curie Ci 3.7 × 1010 s−1 1953 3.7×1010 Bq
rutherford Rd 106 s−1 1946 1,000,000 Bq
Exposure (X) coulomb per kilogram C/kg C⋅kg−1 of air 1974 SI unit
röntgen R esu / 0.001293 g of air 1928 2.58 × 10−4 C/kg
Absorbed dose (D) gray Gy J⋅kg−1 1974 SI unit
erg per gram erg/g erg⋅g−1 1950 1.0 × 10−4 Gy
rad rad 100 erg⋅g−1 1953 0.010 Gy
Dose equivalent (H) sievert Sv J⋅kg−1 × WR 1977 SI unit
röntgen equivalent man rem 100 erg⋅g−1 1971 0.010 Sv

See also

References

Bushberg et al., 2002. The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. (p. 55)