Follow-up of victim exposed in uterus 16 years after Xinzhou radiation accident / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe and study the late effects of intrauterine exposure to irradiation.Methods A 16-year-old girl,borne by a woman exposed to 60Co irradiation during the Xinzhou radiation accident 16 years ago underwent inquiry,general medical examination.Conventional chromosome aberration analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) were used to examine non-stability and stability chromosome aberrations,and China revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (C_WISC)was used to detect IQ level.Results Inquiry revealed no history of carcinoma and no family history of hereditary diseases.The girl often caught cold when she was a child,but she hadn' t any other diseases.Menarche occurred when she was 12 years old,and she had not suffered from dysmenorrhea.Her development of body frame constitution was normal.She could not carry out addition and subtraction,but she could make simple verbal communication,writing and even reciting text.The results of the routine lab examination were within the normal range.Unstable chromosome aberrations were not shown,and the chromosome translocation rate was 2.3%.The dose that induced the chromosome injury was deduced as 0.81 Gy.The biological dose of the radiation that she was exposed to was inferred to be 1.85 Gy when she was in ther mother's uterus.Ultrasonic sound showed nodular goiter and no malignant change.China's revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (C_WISC) test results showed that speech,operation and full-scale IQ was 51,50,and 46 respectively.The total intelligence was better than 0.01% ,and worse than 99.90% of the population.Conclusions Exposure in utero does not affect the body frame constitution development after birth of the fetus,but mental retardation is clear.No evidence of any tumor can be found for the children exposed to radiation before their birth.