ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 October 1974
Page Count: 6

Pathologic Criteria of Radiation Injury
Warren, S
Scientific Director, Emeritus, Cancer Research Institute, New England Deaconess Hospital, Mass.

(Received 25 February 1974; accepted 15 March 1974)

Abstract

The many lesions associated with response to radiation are best considered on the base of dose, amount of body irradiated, duration of the radiation exposure, and time since exposure. Ionizing radiation of different types—X-ray, radium, neutrons—produces essentially similar effects, allowing for differences in dose and in linear energy transfer. The symptomatic reaction to overwhelming whole-body doses of radiation—thousands of rads—is almost immediate disorientation or coma with prompt death. There is no distinctive lesion present at death because of insufficient time for its development. In those few who survive some hours, generalized erythema appears. When tissues are examined histologically, there is little obvious change. Necrosis may be present in lymphoid tissues, as well as congestion and phagocytosis of lymphocytes and red blood cells by reticulum cells and macrophages. Mitosis is absent in tissues where normally active, such as germinal centers of lymphoid tissue, hematopoietic tissue in general, crypts of the intestinal glands, and testes.

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Paper ID: JFS10459J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10459J
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