Figure 5.4 Anatomically realistic body models of adults: (a) Hugo. (From Ackerman, M. J.
1988. Proc IEEE, 86, 3. With permission.) (b) Zubal. (From Lacroux, F. et al. 2008. Ann Telecomm,
63, 55. With permission.) (c) Norman. (From Dimbylow, P. 1998. Phys Med Biol, 42, 479; Dimbylow,
P. 2002. Phys Med Biol, 47, 2835. With permission.) (d) Japanese Male. (From Nagaoka, T. et al.
2004. Phys Med Biol, 49, 1. With permission.)
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Mobile Communication Fields in Biological Systems
modeling has been found to generally increase the observed peak SAR (Okoniewski and
Stuchly 1996; Schoenborn, Burkhardt, and Kuster 1998).
5.2.1.2.1 Adults
In the recent years, several anatomically realistic models of adults have been developed
for use in a wide range of EM dosimetric studies. The Visible Human Project (VHP)
(Ackerman 1998) has made available a digital axial anatomical image library at 1 mm
resolution, with associated MRI and CT images, of the body of a human male, named
Hugo (Figure 5.4a). Hugo’s body model is larger than that of an average man (height
186 cm, weight 90 kg) and consists of 38 tissues. Various dosimetric characteristics have
been investigated with the VHP man (Gjonaj et al. 2002; Mason et al. 2000; Wang et al.
2004), and the model is now being included in many commercially available EM simulation tools with capabilities for dosimetric evaluation.
Based on the VHP man, several modifications have been suggested. For example, in
studies by Bernardi et al. (2000a), a heterogeneous male model has been obtained from a
tissue-classified version of the VHP man and has been down-sampled to obtain a final resolution of 5 mm. The body model has a total height of 180 cm and is composed of 31 different
types of tissues/organs. Furthermore, the deviation of Hugo’s dimensions (height and weight)
from the average values has promoted development of other anatomically realistic models
with average height and weight that are specified in International Commission on Radiation
Protection (ICRP) and other standards (Dimbylow 2005a; ICRP 1994; Nagaoka et al. 2004).
Several other anatomically based adult models can be found in the literature. In
Lacroux et al. (2008), the Zubal adult male model developed by Yale University was used
(height 177 cm, weight 78 kg; Figure 5.4b). The model is composed of 31 different tissues
and its resolution is 3.6 mm. The Norman model (Dimbylow 1998, 2002) was developed at the National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) using data obtained from MRI
and scaled to the height and mass of the reference man described in ICRP 1994; height
176 cm, weight 73 kg; Figure 5.4c). The voxels have approximately a 2 mm side and are
segmented to 38 tissue types. A male Japanese model (height 172 cm, weight 65 kg) was
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)