Dosimetric evaluation in case of accidental irradiation

Many analyses were carried out in our laboratory in order to get a biological estimation of the mean absorbed dose after a human accidental exposure. In case of whole-body acute over-exposures, whenever a physical evaluation of mean absorbed doses had been possible, a good agreement was observed between the physical estimation and the evaluation supplied by chromosomal analysis for doses corresponding to 15 rad of 60-Co γ-rays. Moreover chromosomal damages were always closely correlated to hematological disorders. However, in a recent case of over-exposure protracted over 6 weeks, the results of chromosome analysis led to an estimation of ''dose'' which should have been much lower than the haematological curves did allow to assess. The reasons of this apparent discrepency are discussed. (author)