MONITORING AND DOSE ASSESSMENT FOR CHILDREN FOLLOWING A RADIATION EMERGENCY—PART II: CALIBRATION FACTORS FOR THYROID MONITORING

Past radiological and nuclear accidents have demonstrated that monitoring a large number of children following a radiological and nuclear emergency can be challenging, in accommodating their needs as well as adapting monitoring protocols and applying age-specific biokinetics to account for various agesand body sizes. This paper presents the derived calibration factors for thyroid monitoring of children of all ages recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection using four selected detectors at given times following a short-term(acute) intake of 131I by inhalation. These calibration factors were derived byMonte Carlo simulations using the models of various detectorsand pediatric voxel phantoms. A collection of lookup tables is presented in this paper which may be directly used as a quick reference by emergency response personnel or technical experts performing thyroid monitoring and assessment without doing time-consuming calculations

A taxon-specific and high-throughput method for measuring ligand binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

The binding of compounds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors is of great interest in biomedical research. However, progress in this area is hampered by the lack of a high-throughput, cost-effective, and taxonomically flexible platform. Current methods are low-throughput, consume large quantities of sample, or are taxonomically limited in which targets can be tested. We describe a novel assay which utilizes a label-free bio-layer interferometry technology, in combination with adapted mimotope peptides, in order to measure ligand binding to the orthosteric site of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha-subunits of diverse organisms. We validated the method by testing the evolutionary patterns of a generalist feeding species (), a fish specialist species (), and a snake specialist species () for comparative binding to the orthosteric site of fish, amphibian, lizard, snake, bird, marsupial, and rodent alpha-1 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Binding patterns corresponded with diet, with the not showing bias towards any particular lineage, while showed selectivity for fish, and a selectivity for snake. To validate the biodiscovery potential of this method, we screened and venom for binding to human alpha-1, alpha-2, alpha-3, alpha-4, alpha-5, alpha-6, alpha-7, alpha-9, and alpha-10. While was broadly potent, showed very strong but selective binding, specifically to the alpha-1 target which would be evolutionarily selected for, as well as the alpha-5 target which is of major interest for drug design and development. Thus, we have shown that our novel method is broadly applicable for studies including evolutionary patterns of venom diversification, predicting potential neurotoxic effects in human envenomed patients, and searches for novel ligands of interest for laboratory tools and in drug design and development

Public health response and medical management of internal contamination in past radiological or nuclear incidents: A narrative review

Following a radiological or nuclear emergency, workers, responders and the public may be internally contaminated with radionuclides. Screening, monitoring and assessing any internal contamination and providing necessary medical treatment, especially when a large number of individuals are involved, is challenging. Experience gained and lessons learned from the management of previous incidents would help to identify gaps in knowledge and capabilities on preparedness for and response to radiation emergencies. In this paper, eight large-scale and five workplace radiological and nuclear incidents are reviewed cross 14 technical areas, under the broader topics of emergency preparedness, emergency response and recovery processes. The review findings suggest that 1) new strategies, algorithms and technologies are explored for rapid screening of large populations; 2) exposure assessment and dose estimation in emergency response and dose reconstruction in recovery process are supported by complementary sources of information, including \u27citizen science\u27; 3) surge capacity for monitoring and dose assessment is coordinated through national and international laboratory networks; 4) evidence-based guidelines for medical management and follow-up of internal contamination are urgently needed; 5) mechanisms for international and regional access to medical countermeasures are investigated and implemented; 6) long-term health and medical follow up programs are designed and justified; and 7) capabilities and capacity developed for emergency response are sustained through adequate resource allocation, routine non-emergency use of technical skills in regular exercises, training, and continuous improvement

EURADOS REVIEW OF RETROSPECTIVE DOSIMETRY TECHNIQUES FOR INTERNAL EXPOSURES TOIONISING RADIATION AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

International audienceThis work presents an overview of the applications of retrospective dosimetry techniques in case ofincorporation of radionuclides. The fact that internal exposures are characterized by a spatiallyinhomogeneous irradiation of the body, which is potentially prolonged over large periods andvariable over time, is particularly problematic for biological and electron paramagnetic resonance(EPR) dosimetry methods when compared to external exposures.The paper gives initially specific information about internal dosimetry methods, the most commoncytogenetic techniques used in biological dosimetry and EPR dosimetry applied to tooth enamel.Based on real case scenarios, dose estimates obtained from bioassay data as well as with biologicaland/or EPR dosimetry are compared and critically discussed.In most of the scenarios presented, concomitant external exposures were responsible for the greaterportion of the received dose. As no assay is available which can discriminate between radiation ofdifferent types and different LETs on the basis of the type of damage induced, it is not possible toinfer from these studies specific conclusions valid for incorporated radionuclides alone. The biologicaldosimetry assays and EPR techniques proved to be most applicable in cases when the radionuclidesare almost homogeneously distributed in the body. No compelling evidence was obtained in othercases of extremely inhomogeneous distribution. Retrospective dosimetry needs to be optimized andfurther developed in order to be able to deal with real exposure cases, where a mixture of bothexternal and internal exposures will be encountered most of the times

Child and adult thyroid monitoring after a reactor accident (CAThyMARA): Technical recommendations and remaining gaps

International audienceFollowing a severe nuclear reactor accident large amounts of radioactive iodine are released in the atmosphere. Health consequences estimation for the affected population is based on the dose assessment which can be derived from in vivo measurements. Since the uptake of radioactive iodine increases the thyroid cancer risk of children it is of particular interest to dispose of technical recommendations on thyroid monitoring, particularly for children.This paper summarizes recommendations that have been issued by a group of European radiation protection specialists during the CAThyMARA project. It covers technical aspects such as the choice of instruments, the calibration process, the measurement preparedness, the dose assessment and communication issues. This paper also discusses remaining gaps and serves as an introduction to other papers of this special issue