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Transplantation for accidental acute high-dose total body neutron- and γ-radiation exposure

Abstract

Accidental exposure to acute high-dose total body neutron radiation is rare. We report a 35-year-old man exposed to a total body dose of 5.4 Gy neutron- and 8.5–13 Gy γ-radiation in a radiation criticality accident. He received a blood stem cell transplant from his HLA-identical sister. There was bone marrow recovery with complete donor chimerism. Random chromatid breaks were observed in donor cells suggesting a bystander effect of neutron exposure. The subject died 82 days after the accident (75 days post transplant) from multi-organ failure.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Departments of Hematology and Oncology, Critical Care and Thaumatology, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology and Endocrinology, Cardiology, Respiratory Diseases, Radiology, and Transfusion Medicine, and nursing staffs of the intensive care unit of the University of Tokyo Hospital, and members of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, particularly Dr I Hayata for the chromosome analyses. We also thank Drs Y Kanda, S Mineishi, K Nakagawa and T Kinugasa for helpful discussions.

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Chiba, S., Saito, A., Ogawa, S. et al. Transplantation for accidental acute high-dose total body neutron- and γ-radiation exposure. Bone Marrow Transplant 29, 935–939 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703568

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