Study of human blood and hemocomponents irradiated by low angle x ray scattering (LAXS)

Irradiation of blood and blood components is currently practiced in developed and in a few developing countries. The main purpose of this process is the prevention of graft versus host disease in immunodeficient patients. The Food and Drug Administration recommends a dose range of 15 Gy to 25 Gy for these blood components. When x-ray photons are scattered from biological samples, their angular distribution shows one or more peaks in the forward direction of scattering. These peaks are characteristic for the investigated samples. Due to its wide range of biological and medical applications, low-angle x-ray scattering has attracted the attention of many authors. Thus in this present work was studied the possible variations in scattering profiles due to the irradiation when the gender of patients was considered. Fresh blood specimens were obtained from volunteers using vacutainer tubes containing EDTA, at the Dr. Eliel Figueiredo Laboratory, Rio de Janeiro. All the samples were lyophilized for 48 hours in a freeze drier in order to remove the water. The scattering measurements were carried out in e-2e reflection geometry using a powder diffractometer Shimadzu XRD- 6000. The measured characterization parameters for LAXS were associated with epidemiological data (gender). The mean values of the different parameters were compared using the Students's t-test for each characterization parameters. The scattering profiles from plasma and formed elements are characterized by the presence of two peaks in the forward direction of scattering. For epidemiological data (gender) analyzed was not found significant changes in the mostly of characterization parameters (p>0.05). (author)