Re: burns (with a dose of 25 rem or more)

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@yahoo.com>]

>From "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" at

http://www.princeton.edu/~globsec/publications/effects/effects12.pdf,

scrolling down to 



"12.138 Exposure of laboratory animals to external

ionizing radiation while subjected to thermal burn has



been found to cause a substantial increase in

mortality over that expected from the insults received

separately.  The extent of the increase depends on the

radiation dose and the severity of the burn. Severely

burned subjects exhibit some anemia and the body is

less able to cope with this stress if the immune

mechanism and the activity of the bone marrow are

depressed by the ionizing radiation. The enhanced

mortality from the thermal burns combined with

radiation exposure was not observed for doses of 25

rems or less and it is improbable that the synergistic

effect would occur unless the dose is large enough to

produce at least minimal effect on the immunologic and

hematologic systems. Very little information is

available on fallout (internal) radiation in

combination with thermal or any other form of injury."



--- John Jacobus <crispy_bird@yahoo.com> wrote:



> This is a combined injury effect.  We used to do a

> lot

> of this kind of research with animals at the Armed

> Forces Radiobiolgy Research Institute. 

> http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/

> 

> The only recent article I could find is:

>  Knudson GB, Elliott TB, Brook I, Shoemaker MO,

> Pastel

> RH, Lowy RJ, King GL, Herzig TC, Landauer MR, Wilson

> SA, Peacock SJ, Bouhaouala SS, Jackson III WE,

> Economos D, Miller AC, Ledney GD (2002) NBC combined

> injuries and countermeasures on the battlefield. In:

> Seed TM, Blakely WF, Knudson GB, Landauer MR,

> McClain

> DE (eds) Proceedings of the International Conference

> on Low-Level Radiation Injury and Medical

> Countermeasures, Bethesda, MD, November 8-10, 1999.

> Military Medicine, 167(2):95-97.

> 

> The effeect is probably not a heightened sensitivity

> to radiaiton per se, but synegistis effect due to

> suppression of the white cells from both the

> radiation

> and the immune system's response to the burns.  

> 

> From "Medical Management of the Acute Radiation

> Syndrome: Recommendations of the Strategic National

> Stockpile Radiation Working Group" 

> http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/140/12/1037

> 

> "Lymphopenia is common and occurs before the onset

> of

> other cytopenias. A predictable decline in

> lymphocytes

> occurs after irradiation. In fact, a 50% decline in

> absolute lymphocyte count within the first 24 hours

> after exposure, followed by a further, more severe

> decline within 48 hours, characterizes a potentially

> lethal exposure. The predictability of the rate of

> lymphocytic depletion count has led to the

> development

> of a model using lymphocyte depletion kinetics as an

> element of biodosimetry (30, 31). Patients with

> burns

> (32-34) and trauma (35) may develop lymphopenia as a

> result of these injuries alone. Although currently

> available predictive models based on absolute

> lymphocyte count have been validated (and include

> patients with these injuries), it is important to

> examine more than one element of biodosimetry

> whenever

> possible."

> 

> Check out references 32-34

> 

> 

> --- "Stabin, Michael"

> <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu> wrote:

> 

> > 

> > I just heard in a meeting that if you have thermal

> > burns over more than

> > 50% of your body, you can have severe marrow

> > depression at doses as low

> > as 1 Gy. I don't have a reference or anything

> better

> > than "I heard it at

> > a meeting". Does anyone have confirmation of this?

> > If true, does anyone

> > know a mechanism that can explained the apparently

> > heightened

> > radiosensitivity? Thanks.





=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these."

LORD HOFFMAN, of Britain's highest court, which ruled against indefinite detention of terror suspects





-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com





		

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