Re: Rad. induced heart attacks

[John Moulder <jmoulder@post.its.mcw.edu>]

> I have been asked to document that radiation does or does not cause 
> heart attacks.  The University experienced two deaths to heart attacks 
> on two consecutive nights in a department here on campus.  Now everyone 
> feels these deaths are related to working conditions.  The latest 
> theory is that this department is located next to physics and since 
> everyone knows that RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL is used here -- THE HEART 
> ATTACKS WERE SOMEHOW INDUCED BY RADIATION!! 

Yesterday I replied with the references Ed will need, but for those of you 
who don't want to read them, here's what they say.

Radiation does cause myocardial damage, and probably can cause myocardial 
infarctions.  This has been documented in both humans and animals.  The dose-
response relationship (at least for animals) is well-known.  The dose-
response curve is sigmoidal in shape, so there is an effective threshold dose 
at around 55 Gy for doses delivered in radiation oncology type schedules.  
This would probably translate to a single dose of about 40 Gy.

So:
Yes, radiation can cause heart attacks
No, it didn't cause these heart attacks

On a related thread:
I would not expect a medical examiner, a cardiologist, or a radiologist to 
know anything about this.  I wouldn't expect a medical physicist to know 
about it either, _unless_ they worked in radiation oncology.

Any radiation oncologist would know this info, and the pertinent references.  
A radiation biologist might know it, although most radiation biologists 
trained in the last 20 years don't know any radiation biology above the cell 
level.  

John Moulder (jmoulder@its.mcw.edu)
Experimental Radiotherapy Group
Medical College of Wisconsin