Radiation injury overview
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Radiation poisoning, also called radiation sickness, is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. The term is generally used to refer to acute problems caused by a large dosage of radiation in a short period. Many of the symptoms of radiation poisoning occur as ionizing radiation interferes with cell division. This interference allows for treatment of cancer cells; such cells are among the fastest-dividing in the body, and may be destroyed by a radiation dose that adjacent normal cells are likely to survive.
The clinical name for "radiation sickness" is acute radiation syndrome as described by the CDC[2][3][4][5]. A chronic radiation syndrome does exist but is very uncommon; this has been observed among workers in early radium source production sites and in the early days of the Soviet nuclear program. A short exposure can result in acute radiation syndrome; chronic radiation syndrome requires a prolonged high level of exposure.