Correction of radiation absorption on biological samples using Rayleigh to Compton scattering ratio

The aim of this work was to develop a method to correct the absorbed radiation (the mass attenuation coefficient curve) in low energy (E < 30 keV) applied to a biological matrix based on the Rayleigh to Compton scattering ratio and the effective atomic number. For calibration, scattering measurements were performed on standard samples of radiation produced by a gamma-ray source of 241Am (59.54 keV) also applied to certified biological samples of milk powder, hay powder and bovine liver (NIST 1557B). In addition, six methods of effective atomic number determination were used as described in literature to determinate the Rayleigh to Compton scattering ratio (R/C), in order to calculate the mass attenuation coefficient. The results obtained by the proposed method were compared with those obtained using the transmission method. The experimental results were in good agreement with transmission values suggesting that the method to correct radiation absorption presented in this paper is adequate for biological samples.