Application of chromosome aberration frequency in human lymphocytes to biological dosimetry

This is a brief investigation of biological dosimetry for human subjects. During the past decade techniques have been developed for the analysis of radiation-induced chromosome aberrations in human lymphocytes. As a result, a vast amount of studies on chromosome aberrations induced by radiation in human lymphocytes have been carried out. These studies have revealed the relationships between aberration frequencies and absorbed doses. At present this method appears to be the most readily quantifiable one of biological dosimetry available.The problems associated with the use of this method in estimating radiation dose are discussed. These problems include time of sampling after irradiation, culture time, dose rate, type of radiation, temperature at the time of irradiation, etc.