Symptomatology of Acute Radiation Effects in Humans After Exposure to Doses of 0.5-30 Gy

Abstract

This article distills from available data descriptions of typical human symptoms in reaction to prompt total-body ionizing radiation in the dose range 0.5 to 30 Gy midline body tissue. The symptoms are correlated with dose and time over the acute postexposure period of 6 wk. The purpose is to provide a symptomatology basis for assessing early functional impairment of individuals who may be involved in civil defense, emergency medical care and various military activities in the event of a nuclear attack. The dose range is divided into eight subranges associated with important pathophysiological events. For each subrange, signs and symptoms are designated including estimates of symptom onset, severity, duration and incidence.

Behavioral consequences of radiation exposure to simulated space radiation in the C57BL/6 mouse: Open field, rotorod, and acoustic startle

“…In the adult guinea pig, g-or Xirradiation in the 5-to 10-Gy range can significantly impair the ability of hippocampal (CA1) neurons to generate and maintain the membrane potentials required for axonal spikes and synaptic function, with the duration of the impairment being 5-7 days (Pellmar & Lepinski, 1993;Tolliver & Pellmar, 1987). Disorientation in humans (Anno et al, 1989) and impaired learning and memory in rats (Fields, 1957;Urmer & Brown, 1960) occur within a day of exposure to doses of 5-Gy g-or X-irradiation. Transient damage of this sort to the hippocampus would be a possible source of the open-field performance deficits.…”

“…For example, conditioning in a taste aversion paradigm is disrupted in rats within 3 days of exposure to proton or 56 Fe radiation at doses of less than 3 Gy (Rabin, Hunt, & Joseph, 1989;Rabin, Hunt, Joseph, Dalton, & Kandasamy, 1991). Fatigue and weakness occur in humans after doses of X rays as low as 1 Gy (Anno, Baum, Withers, & Young, 1989). Disorientation (Anno et al, 1989), and impaired learning and memory (Fields, 1957;Urmer & Brown, 1960) have been shown to occur within a day of exposure to doses of 5-Gy g-or X-irradiation.…”

“…Fatigue and weakness occur in humans after doses of X rays as low as 1 Gy (Anno, Baum, Withers, & Young, 1989). Disorientation (Anno et al, 1989), and impaired learning and memory (Fields, 1957;Urmer & Brown, 1960) have been shown to occur within a day of exposure to doses of 5-Gy g-or X-irradiation. In patients undergoing clinical radiotherapy, cognitive function is sometimes degraded within hours of being treated with 10 Gy or less (Hochberg & Slotnick, 1980;Maire, Coudin, Guerin, & Caudry, 1987;Taphoorn et al, 1992).…”

Ghrelin as a Novel Therapy for Radiation Combined Injury

“…It was generally thought that the brain was highly radioresistant and is affected only at radiation doses as high as 20-30 Gy, at which a transient or permanent incapacitation of the CNS occurs, leading to coma and death (24,25). This idea is based on the knowledge that the CNS consists (to a great extent) of nonproliferating cells.…”

A Mathematical Model of the Human Small Intestine Following Acute Radiation and Burn Exposures

“…The model is structured as a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with nonlinear proliferation and feedback effects. Radiation is assumed to damage a portion of the proliferative cells in this model using the one-target-one-hit theory of cell damage (Lea, 1955) Another powerful model of small intestine epithelial response is built into the RadiationInduced Performance Decrement (RIPD) model (Anno et al, 1989, Anno et al, 1991. RIPD, a physiologically-based mathematical model of the effects of ionizing radiation, calculates time-dependent symptoms and predicts performance following exposure to irradiation.…”