Radiation sickness Classically,<unk>  is divided into three main presentations: hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, and neurovascular. These syndromes may be preceded by a prodrome. The speed of symptom onset is related to radiation exposure, with greater doses resulting in a shorter delay in symptom onset. These presentations presume whole-body exposure, and many of them are markers that are invalid if the entire body has not been exposed. Each syndrome requires that the tissue showing the syndrome itself be exposed (e.g., gastrointestinal syndrome is not seen if the stomach and intestines are not exposed to radiation). Some areas affected are: #Hematopoietic. This syndrome is marked by a drop in the number of blood cells, called aplastic anemia. This may result in infections, due to a low number of white blood cells, bleeding, due to a lack of platelets, and anemia, due to too few red blood cells in circulation. These changes can be detected by blood tests after receiving a whole-body<unk>  dose as low as , though they might never be felt by the patient if the dose is below . Conventional trauma and burns resulting from a bomb blast are complicated by the poor wound healing caused by hematopoietic syndrome, increasing mortality. #Gastrointestinal. This syndrome often follows absorbed doses of . The signs and symptoms of this form of radiation injury include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and abdominal pain. Vomiting in this time-frame is a marker for whole body exposures that are in the fatal range above . Without exotic treatment such as bone marrow transplant, death with this dose is common, due generally more to infection than gastrointestinal dysfunction. #Neurovascular. This syndrome typically occurs at absorbed doses greater than , though it may occur at doses as low as . It presents with neurological symptoms like dizziness, headache, or decreased level of consciousness, occurring within minutes to a few hours, with an absence of vomiting, and is almost always fatal, even with aggressive intensive care. Early symptoms of<unk>  typically include nausea, vomiting, headaches, fatigue, fever, and a short period of skin reddening. These symptoms may occur at radiation doses as low as . These symptoms are common to many illnesses, and may not, by themselves, indicate<unk>  radiation sickness. Dose effects A person who happened to be less than from the atomic bomb Little Boys hypocenter at Hiroshima, Japan was found to absorb about 9.46 grays (Gy) of ionizing radiation. The doses at the hypocenters of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings were 240 and 290 Gy, respectively. Skin changes Harry K. Daghlian's hand 9 days after he had manually stopped a prompt critical fission reaction during an accident with what later obtained the nickname the demon core. He received a dose of 5.1 Sv, or 3.1 Gy. He died 16 days after this photo was taken. Cutaneous radiation syndrome (CRS) refers to the skin symptoms of radiation exposure. Within a few hours after irradiation, a transient and inconsistent redness (associated with itching) can occur. Then, a latent phase may occur and last from a few days up to several weeks, when intense reddening, blistering, and ulceration of the irradiated site is visible. In most cases, healing occurs by regenerative means; however, very large skin doses can cause permanent hair loss, damaged sebaceous and sweat glands, atrophy, fibrosis (mostly keloids), decreased or increased skin pigmentation, and ulceration or necrosis of the exposed tissue. Notably, as seen at Chernobyl, when skin is irradiated with high energy beta particles, moist desquamation (peeling of skin) and similar early effects can heal, only to be followed by the collapse of the dermal vascular system after two months, resulting in the loss of the full thickness of the exposed skin. This effect had been demonstrated previously with pig skin using high energy beta sources at the Churchill Hospital Research Institute, in Oxford.
Acute radiation syndrome
Chronic radiation syndrome
Second-impact syndrome
Majeed syndrome
FACES syndrome
Post-intensive care syndrome
Post-polio syndrome
Decompression sickness