Current developments in biodosimetry tools for radiological/nuclear mass casualty incidents

Abstract

Radiological /nuclear (R/N) mass casualty incidents can potentially expose several hundreds and thousands of humans to substantial doses of ionizing radiation (IR). Timely assessment of radiation dose is critical for making “life-saving” clinical decision for those with exposures to moderate and high doses of radiation. The current biodosimetry techniques are time consuming and laborious making them impractical for mass casualty incidents. Therefore, improvements for the existing techniques and development of new biodosimetry tools are required for rapid individualized dose estimation. This review summarizes some of the ongoing multi-parametric efforts at the REAC/TS Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Laboratory (REAC/TS CBL) to accelerate the radiation dose assessment in exposed individuals.

Keywords

• Radiation cytogenetic biodosimetry
• Triage
• Automation
• High throughput platforms
• Miniaturized dicentric chromosome assay
• Interphase chromosome breakage assay