Radiation Injuries
Severity of exposure can be estimated based upon time to emesis; survival is inversely related to radiation dose. Emesis that occurs greater than 4 hours after exposure typically predicts a more mild course of sequelae. Emesis within 2 hours predicts at least 3 Gy dose of radiation - Leslie Crosby MD
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Radiation Injury and Emergency Medicine
Our understanding of toxicity associated with exposure to radiation has increased since the discovery of X-rays in 1895. X-rays were used to treat a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases. The effects of radioactive exposure on specific tissues can vary. Radioactive particles destroy or impair tissue by generating free radicals that damage important molecular structures, such as DNA. Radiation exposure can lead to catastrophic consequences, ranging from severe, acute injury to long-lasting effects that manifest years after the initial exposure...
Exposure to radioactive particles is divided into intentional or unintentional causes. Notable intentional causes include the…
Resources
Ionizing Radiation Injuries and Illnesses: Ensuring Patient Safety and Self-Preservation
Radiation injuries and illnesses are rare. Much of the information that we have gained stems from epidemiologic studies of nuclear incidents, two of which marked the history of the U.S...
Radiation Injuries
Patients contaminated with radiation pose very little risk to health care providers when appropriate precautions and decontamination procedures are employed.
After Japan Crisis, New Urgency for Radiation Drugs
For nuclear power plant accidents, the major exposure for the public would come from radioactive isotopes, and there already are some approved drugs for these that are in the federal stockpile. The drugs being developed by the biotech companies would probably not reduce the long-term risk of cancer after radiation exposure. They are aimed more at treating what is called acute radiation syndrome.
Exactly What Happens When Your Body Is Exposed to Radiation
During nuclear fallout, doses reach the equivalent of 3 million chest x-rays.
Polonium
Must be administered systemically to be toxic (ingestion, inhalation or injection).
Radiation Injury and Emergency Medicine
The effects of radiation exposure on specific tissues varies. Tragic consequences can result, ranging from severe, acute injury to long- lasting effects that present years after the initial exposure.
REMM
Provide guidance for health care providers, primarily physicians, about clinical diagnosis and treatment of radiation injury during radiological and nuclear emergencies
CDC
Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) (sometimes known as radiation toxicity or radiation sickness) is an acute illness caused by irradiation of the entire body (or most of the body) by a high dose of penetrating radiation in a very short period of time (usually a matter of minutes).
NORD
Radiation sickness describes the harmful effects–acute, delayed, or chronic–produced by exposure to ionizing radiation. An observable effect due to radiation exposure becomes quite certain after a single dose of several hundred rads. As a rule, large doses of radiation are of concern because of their immediate effects on the body (somatic), while low doses are of concern because of the potential for possible late somatic and long-term genetic effects. The effects of radiation exposure on an individual are cumulative.
ScienceDirect
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.
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