Improvement Of Biological Dosimetry By Cytogenetics For Operational Purposes: Dicentrics Or Micronuclei?

In the case of an irradiation suspicion implying few people and considering the known (or unknown!) circumstances of the radiological accident, the quality of the preparations and the precision of the estimate are privileged. So that the confidence interval is satisfactory, several hundreds of metaphases must be observed. It is a long and tiresome job, requiring several working days for skilled observers. In the event of accident involving a large population exposed to irradiation, uncertainties of physical dosimetry or clinical symptoms increase in proportion of the number of potentially irradiated individuals, which justifies the interest of a biological dosimetry on a purely individual basis. Its utility fully appears only if the dose estimates can be returned in the hours following the real or supposed irradiation. The measuring accuracy and the quality of the preparations appear in proportion less important than the deadline. A particular procedure making it possible to combine these various factors was developed and checked during simulation training. The metaphase preparation and chromosome analysis techniques were simplified, and the number of observed metaphases reduced. We will see below the effectiveness of this process.