Use of physical and biological methods simultaneously for dose level and topographical distribution evaluation in an accidental whole-body acute irradiation

On May 13, 1975, a 22 years-old individual was accidentally exposed to a 60Co source. He suffered from whole body, non-uniform acute irradiation at a lethal dose leading to death on the 13th day. There resulted a local cephalic and cervico-thoracic over-exposure. The highly serious character of the accident was soon assessed from the early physical data on the circumstances of the exposure, the initial clinical syndrom and the early hematological data. The delivered dose was soon known, by physical and biological methods simultaneously. Physical dosimetry gave dose levels with a good approximation and topographical distribution with great accuracy. Biological dosimetry, chiefly founded on the analysis of the hematological curves of the first days and on the chromosomal analysis, supplied an accurate estimate of the mean dose and of the non-uniform distribution of the exposure and an evaluation of extreme doses. The clinical evolution, both local and general, verified the dosimetric data. In spite of a drastic antibacterial prophylaxis and a substituting hematological therapy, the patient who was in a state of bone marrow aplasia and presented pharynx necrosis and central neurological troubles died on the 13th day