Micronucleus determination as a means to assess radiation exposure.

Abstract

Radiation accidents require an easy to perform and rapid determination of the radiation response of the victim(s) affected by the exposure. Micronuclei in cytochalasin B blocked lymphocytes are able to serve this purpose. Micronuclei are particularly useful when it comes to screening many exposed people after a more or less homogeneous whole body exposure with a high dose rate. There are problems, as is the case for most biological indicators, with partial body (especially when it is due to internal emitters), chronic and fractionated exposure.