Influence of low-dose occupational radiation exposure on peripheral blood cells in radiation workers / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the effect of low-dose ionizing radiation on blood cell parameters of radiation workers.Methods:A total of 124 staff members engaged in radiology were selected into the observation group, and they were divided into 4 subgroups of physicians, physicists, technicians, and maintainer according to their jobs. A total of 130 non-radiation-related staff members from the same hospital were selected into the control group. Blood cell parameters of peripheral blood of all subjects from 2016 to 2019 were collected, and the differences in blood cell parameters between the radiation group and the control group as well as 4 subgroups of the control group were analyzed and compared, and the correlation between the differences in blood cell parameters and the cumulative radiation dose was compared.Results:Compared with the control group, the white blood cell count, neutrophil count, red blood cell count and hemoglobin count in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (all P<0.05). There are no significant differences in cumulative radiation dose among different types of work (all P>0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the blood cell parameters of peripheral blood cells were not significantly correlated with the cumulative radiation dose. The blood cell count changes after 4-year low-dose ionizing radiation between the physicist group, the technician group and the maintainer sub-group were significantly different (all P<0.05), but the above differences were not related to the cumulative radiation dose (all P>0.05). Conclusions:Under the same exposure and protection conditions, the blood cell counts of different radiation-related workers are not significantly different, and the long-term cumulative radiation dose has no significant correlation with blood cell parameters. Therefore, peripheral blood cell parameters can no longer be used as a good indicator to reflect radiation damage, and it is urgent to find more convenient, intuitive and sensitive indicators of radiation damage.