Evidence Hub

Cataractogenic Effects щf Low-Dose Radiation цith Low Let: More not Than There. Report 2. Epidemiological Studies

Aleksey N. Koterov, Liliya N. Ushenkova

Радиационная биология Радиоэкология, 2023

Abstract

Radiation damage to the lens is considered to be the third most important effect of radiation, after mortality from cancer and diseases of the circulatory system (ICRP-118). In terms of the effects of low dose radiation with low LET (up to 100 mGy), interest in the problem of cataractogenic disorders is growing, although there is no clarification of the issue. In the present study, two reports attempt to fill this gap. Report 1 reviewed the work on cataractogenic effects of the lowest doses of radiation with low LET in experiments in vitro and in vivo and concluded that there was no significant confirmation of them in animal experiments; Report 2 presents the results of epidemiological studies relevant to the problem. Data are presented on the uncertainties associated with such epidemiological studies: the ambiguity of the relationship between disorders in the lens and the formation of cataracts, their dependence on age, as well as the dependence of the estimation on the accepted system for classifying opacities. These uncertainties have had the consequence that since 1977 the ICRP has proposed five successively decreasing threshold doses (limits) for lens disorders. The dose patterns for radiogenic damage to the lens in the nine exposed groups mentioned in the reviews are considered: victims of atomic bombings (LSS), liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, medical radiologists (rentgenologists, technologists), patients after computed tomography and radiotherapy, industrial…

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free