[Importance of studying exposure of the population to radon and its daughters]. / Znacaj istrazivanja izlozenosti stanovnistva radonu i njegovim potomcima.

INTRODUCTION: Radon and thoron are naturally-occurring radioactive gases, which are products of uranium and thorium decay series, respectively. Uranium and thorium occur widely in the environment, in rocks, soil, air, water, building materials, humans, etc. Radon daughters in the air are predominantly attached to aerosols. A minor part, normally less than 10%, occurs as unattached atoms or ions. The relative distribution of attached daughters in indoor air and equilibrium factor depend on many variables, such as the decay constant, the concentration and size distribution of aerosols and ventilation rates. Increased ventilation decreases the concentration of radon and daughters in the air. OCCURRENCE: Concentration of radon, thoron and their decay products in the air indoors, in mines or houses, is higher than outdoors. In houses, the level of radon daughters may be enhanced by radon from radium rich building materials, landfill, soil and bedrock under the house, radon rich water and by poor ventilation. CONCLUSION: In recent years, several evaluations of human health risks and estimations have been made in regard to the dose-response relationship and lung cancer risk attributable to inhaled radon daughters. Inhalation of radon and thoron daughters leads to deposition in the human respiratory tract and consequent irradiation. Deposition depends on various factors, such as the size distribution of aerosols to which the daughter products of radon are attached, and fraction of unattached daughters. On average, the dose to the basal cell layer in the lung is about 5 to 8 times higher than the dose in the pulmonary region.

[The lipoprotein status in persons with borderline glucose tolerance impairment before and after a reducing diet]. / Lipoproteinski status osoba sa granicno ostecenom tolerancijom glikoze pre i posle redukcione dijete.

The well known association between non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and hyperlipoproteinemia (HLP) is one of the leading causes of high incidence and mortality for cardiovascular disease of diabetic patients. For auspicious and effective treatment of NIDDM and its complications, secondary prevention, that is, an early detection, plays a major role. At the same time high concern should be given to the benefits of early detection and treatment of atherogenic HLP at early stages of diabetes mellitus, for their occurrence in borderline impairment of glucose tolerance (G-OGT) is still evasive. The investigation on the occurrence and incidence of HLP in G-OGT was carried out in 576 adults (310 men and 266 women) with recently detected G-OGT. The results were compared with those obtained in the non-G-OGT group (50 men and 52 women). Values of total LDL cholesterol as well as triglycerides in the blood of the subjects of either sex highly exceeded recommended values and were higher than in the controls. HDL cholesterol was significantly decreased while the values of the LDL cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio and total triglycerides were significantly higher. Atherogenic hyperlipoproteinemia was evidenced in 52.58% of men and 50.75% of women with G-OGT and in 36.00% of men and 32.69% of women with normal G-OGT. After a one-year dietetic regimen all the lipid parameters evidently improved in both men and women, while the incidence of atherogenic hyperlipoproteinemia fell to 40.82% of the men and 31.32% of the women.