A. V. Akleyev: Chronic radiation syndrome

Abstract

This 2014 volume (Akleyev 2014) is the English translation of a book published in the Russian language in 2012. The author is Alexander Akleyev, who has been Director of the Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine (URCRM) of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia since 1990. He describes all aspects of the chronic radiation syndrome (CRS), experienced by many riverside villagers exposed to protracted radiation as a result of discharges of radionuclides from the Mayak nuclear facility into the neighbouring Techa river in the early 1950s. Studies of that population were recognised by the United Nations Scientific Committee on Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR 2006) as an important scenario and an opportunity for estimating dose–effect relationships for protracted irradiation of humans. This evidence formed the basis to a threshold dose of 0.4 Gy per year for several years, recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP 2012) for chronic-radiation exposures. Originally termed chronic radiation sickness, the illness later became classified as a syndrome. It involves health problems variously in several organ systems, and the diagnosis is complex requiring specified criteria. The Chapters comprise: Definition, classification and clinical presentation of CRS; Epidemiology of CRS; Mechanisms involved in CRS; Pathoanatomy of CRS during development and recovery; Clinical manifestation of CRS; Dynamics of hematopoietic changes in CRS; Diagnosis of CRS; Treatment of CRS; Conclusions. The text is supplemented by various Figures and Tables, and each chapter has a reference list of primary publications. In addition, there are some case reports of individuals of different ages, showing the variety of effects observed and any treatments given. There have been numerous publications in the Russian language about the Techa river incident, over the 60? years since it occurred. Several reviews have been published in English language journals, and there was also a book edited by AV Akleyev and MF Kisselyov published in 2001. That book is quoted in the present volume as being in Russian, but also an edition in English was published by FREGAT (2002) in Chelyabinsk. One of the first comprehensive reviews specifically about CRS in the English language was a joint report published by the American Forces Radiation Research Institute (AFRRI) in 1994, and again in 1998. Thereafter, the English-language book edited by Akleyev and Kisselyov (2002) included three substantial chapters on CRS. In addition, a 2006 UNSCEAR report Annex on radiation effects in the immune system included evidence from the Techa riverside residents. Overall, it can be said that Alex Akleyev and his many past and present colleagues have made enormous and much appreciated efforts to convey to the international community the very important evidence about CRS in relation to this past radiation incident. The referenced evidence regarding CRS in the present book stops abruptly in 2012, the publication date of the Russian edition translated in the present volume. However, I find little else published since 2012 about CRS in the English language, listed in the US NCBI PubMed database. So the present volume from the publisher Springer can be taken to represent a fairly current comprehensive account of CRS in the Techa riverside population cohort, which should be useful to all radiation health professionals concerned with the effects of increasing doses of protracted radiations. J. Hendry (&) Christie Medical Physics and Engineering, Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK e-mail: jhendry2002uk@yahoo.com