Dose measured at 1.0 cm or 1,000 mg/cm2 is:

• A. Shallow Dose Equivalent
• B. Deep Dose Equivalent
• C. Organ Dose Equivalent
• D. Total Dose Equivalent

Answer: (B)

The important idea is that dose equivalent depends on how deep in the body you’re measuring. A depth of about 1 cm corresponds to roughly 1,000 mg of tissue per square centimeter (since tissue density is about 1 g/cm³). That depth is used to define the deep dose equivalent, which is the dose equivalent for external radiation at a tissue depth of 1 cm. So the measurement at 1 cm depth matches this quantity.

Shallow dose equivalent is for very shallow skin depths (around 0.007 cm), organ dose equivalent would be specific to a particular organ, and total dose equivalent isn’t defined by a single 1 cm depth measurement.