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The data on incidence of goiter in inhabitants of Kiev province for 5 years after Chernobyl accident, increase in number of operations performed for nodular forms of autoimmune thyroiditis and thyroid cancer are presented.
A total of 878 children from the regions with unfavourable radiation situation were investigated in varying periods after the catastrophe. The data obtained were compared with the results of the study of 317 children from "pure" regions. Morphological, metabolic and ultrastructural changes were detected in blood cells of the children from radioactively contaminated regions after the Chernobyl catastrophe. A tendency to normalization of these parameters was noted in the time course of the post-catastrophe period. No clear relationship was established between the dose and effect. However, significant correlations between the severity of disorders in blood cells and the intensity of free-radical processes in the body were recorded.
The survey carried out in 1990 covering the population of Sejny community, sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, program MZXVII, demonstrated the occurrence of goiter in 33.6% of studied persons. Such an incidence can rightly be recognized as an endemy. Predominance of cases with small or moderate enlargement of the thyroid (OB and I), low percentage of nodules (18%), and 2.8 times more frequent occurrence of goiter in women allows o characterize the endemy as mild. The percentage of goiter in this population does not differ from that found in this area before the Chernobyl disaster. However a small increase in the incidence of thyroid enlargement in a group of boys of age between 17 and 19 years, and an increase in percentage of nodular goiter in whole population was noted. The questionnaire studies confirmed in addition a high effectiveness of mass iodine prophylaxis introduced after the atomic disaster, especially in the population of developmental age. However, because of the latency period concerning the possible effects, the results obtained will be verified in the course of long-term prospective studies.
Endocrinous and metabolism disorders were studied in the remote period in persons subjected to the effect of ionizing radiation after the Chernobyl atomic station accident. Results of the investigation revealed: disorders of the synthesis of sex hormones with small radiation doses; serotonin in increased concentration produced at the level of the hypothalamus a modulating effect on the pituitary-adrenocortical system causing its functional tension; persisting functional changes in the central regulation link--the hypothalamus.
The peripheral blood of 2200 children (age: from 2 to 16 years) inhabiting the Polessye District of Kiev Province and the city of Kiev 4 years after the Chernobyl atomic station accident was studied. An analysis of results revealed the presence of hematologic changes that may be interpreted as sequels of the effect of ionizing radiation on the body, while other changes may be considered as reactive and may in most cases accompany different somatic diseases of infectious-inflammatory character.
Sixty participants of liquidation of the sequels of the Chernobyl atomic station accident were examined. All of them were subjected to the effect of different doses of ionizing radiation. A complex of symptoms is described characterizing the cerebrosthenic syndrome with vegetative paroxysms and intellectual-mnestic disorders. In accordance with this, approaches to treatment and rehabilitation of these patients are discussed.
A study was made of some embryological, hematological, cytogenetic and biochemical characteristics in Wistar rats exposed within the Chernobyl NPP zone over a period of 30 days (the average radiation background level, 75, and at the soil surface, 115 mR/h; a cumulative dose, 57 rad/30 days, and for pregnant rats, 36 rad/20 days). The quantity of chromosome aberrations in bone marrow metaphases and the embryonal death rate were invariable; some cases of teratogenesis were, however, observed. The total number of karyocytes in the brain and the leukocyte content in the peripheral blood sometimes decreased. The changes in certain characteristics (such as the content of endogenous amines and thiols in the liver and spleen) of the endogenous radioresistance background (ERB) and the normalization of the ERB by the radioprotective agent MIGI-K were found.
Investigations of the central haemodynamics and myocardial contractility in 73 men, who took part in repairing after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, in 4 years after the accident have shown the hyperkinetic type of circulation in 60.2%, eukinetic in 23.2%, hypokinetic in 15.6% of the examinees. Such changes of the central haemodynamics, increased frequency of the hyperkinetic type are due to the regulatory disorders decreasing the vascular tone in the major and minor circles, amplifying the venous return to heart and increasing the myocardial contractility.
The dose of radioactive irradiation received by the workers of the Mozyr industrial area after the Chernobyl power plant accident cannot result in specific lesions, but a nonspecific effects of low radiation doses, chemical substances of low intensity and other occupational factors are possible. A possible radiation origin of the astheno-depressive and astheno-somatic disorders developing by nonspecific stress mechanisms is to be investigated.
A study of 1167 children (age: 7-15 years) inhabiting districts contaminated with radionuclide due to Chernobyl atomic station accident indicates that children with thyroid hyperplasia revealed high requirement and intensity of the peripheral metabolism of thyroid hormones that results finally in relative hormonal deficit (subclinical hypothyroidism) and thyroid hyperplasia. This is a sequel of maximum functional tension of the thyroid with impending breakdown of adaptation and this should be considered as a pathological process requiring correction, i.e. presence of subclinical hypothyroidism in children with thyroid hyperplasia requires substitution therapy with thyroid hormones.
The immune state of 77 cleanup workers of Chernobyl power plant accident suffering from vegetative dystonia was studied. The group of comparison consisted of 10 vegetative dystonia patients, who were not subjected to the ionizing radiation influence. The workers showed no specific changes of immunity, but immune state disturbances among them were more frequent and more pronounced that in ordinary vegetative dystonia patients.
A study of 426 males who participated in liquidating the sequels of the Chernobyl atomic station disaster revealed specific changes of the sexual active and generative function. Data are reported on the main mechanisms of these disorders and treatment results are analyzed.
A study was made of hydrobionts, particularly fishes, living within the thirty-kilometer control zone of Chernobyl NPP and northern part of the Kiev basin, after the disaster. Out of 31 fish species living in the NPP cooling pond some were identified which were mostly affected by radioactive contamination. They were predators belonging, with respect to reproduction and development, to a lithophilous group. Peculiarities of reproduction of Hypophthalmichthys molitrix kept in stews of the cooling pond before the accident were studied. After a three-year exposure to ionizing radiation (cumulative dose of 8-9 Gy) no reduction in the reproductive capacity of mature fishes was observed.
Chromosome preparations from peripheral blood cells of 117 subjects who took part in liquidation of Chernobyl NPP accident consequences in 1986 have been investigated. The number of chromosome aberrations has been shown to increase considerably. A short-term exposure has been found to be 5-7 times more effective than long-term one.
Distinct changes in the clinical picture of acute pneumonia were noted in patients subjected to constant prolonged (1986-1990) effect of small doses of ionizing radiation as a result of residing in the contaminated territory after the Chernobyl atomic station disaster. These changes included increased duration of the disease, frequency of protracted forms, suppression of the immune system. At the same time a general decrease of the incidence of acute pneumonia, increase of the frequency of severe cases of concomitant pathology indicate some stimulating effect of small doses of ionizing radiation on the body with a healthy immune system and suppressing effect on inadequately functioning immune system. Changes of the clinico-laboratory indices of the course of acute inflammatory process depended on the duration of residing in the contaminated locality and to a lesser degree of the dose.
Three nuclear accidents besides Chernobyl have occurred in the former Soviet Union. The accidents occurred around Kyshtym and Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains between 1949 and 1967 and contaminated over one-half million people. The health ministries are now interested in the data previously collected on these irradiated populations in order to examine the health (e.g., psychological, hereditary, genome damage, etc.) implications of long-term radiation exposure.
As result of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident the territory of the left-bank flood-lands of the Pripyat River have undergone intensive radionuclide contamination. With the purpose of preventing the washing away of radioactive substances, a complex of flood protection dams was constructed. This construction changed the hydrological regime of these territories and caused overgrowth by higher aquatic plants. Absence of a flowing mode of reservoirs, the stagnant phenomena during spring and seasonal high waters on the embank site have caused amplification of eutrophication processes, swamping and, connected with it, increase of water-marsh floristic complex in the structure of the vegetative cover.
Four male mice were shown to have decreased fertility among 74 laboratory male mice exposed in the Chernobyl APP area during embryogenesis. Electron microscopic analysis of synaptonemal complexes (SC) of at zygotene-diplotene and light-optic analysis of chromosome aberrations at diakinesis-metaphase 1 demonstrated the presence of interchromosome translocations in autosomal chromosomes, and also intrachromosome translocations in two of four animals. The frequency of chromosome translocations in SC preparations was on the average 1.8 times higher than their frequency at the diakinesis-metaphase 1 stage. High percentage of cells in which associations of sex bivalent axes (XY) with the axes of autosomal bivalents were observed in the SC preparations and reduced fertility in the animals studied confirmed the Forejt's hypothesis that such associations caused the arrest of cells at pachytene and, as a consequence, disturbed the process of embryogenesis.