Acute Radiation Sickness from Chernobyl

Abstract

This article is organized in four parts, and the fourth one is subdivided into several portions accordingly to presented classification of the acute radiation sickness (ARS). This article reflects current international approaches and authors’ personal experience related to clinical features of acute radiation effects in man including that received in dealing with Chernobyl accident patients. ARS is presented as a complex of clinical syndromes appearing after short-term ionizing radiation exposure resulting from different types of radiation accidents. Etiology of the ARS is presented on the basis of interaction of ionizing radiation with living tissues. The most important types of radiation accidents are listed in the part of the article devoted to the epidemiological characters of the ARS, and corresponding kinds of radiation exposure with general evaluation of possible effects are presented. The main part of the article contains the description of principal clinical forms and basic radiation syndromes and their classification. The dependence of all clinical manifestations on the radiation accident conditions, the dose of irradiation, and its distribution within the body is underlined. The clinical forms of ARS presented are hematological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and central nervous system, which are conditioned with relatively uniform whole body irradiation. The form of acute radiation syndrome, resulting from whole or partial body exposure with significantly nonuniform distribution of the dose, is described as a combination of bone marrow syndrome with cutaneous syndrome. A short description of radiation pneumonitis and radiation cataract can be found at the end of the article.