Radiation Exposure: Partial Body - Animation

• Whole Body
• Partial Body

Patient Management:

Exposure:

• Radiation exposure occurs when all or part of the body absorbs penetrating ionizing radiation from an external radiation source, as shown in the illustration above.
  • Exposure from an external source stops when a person leaves the area of the source, the source is shielded completely, or the process causing exposure ceases.
• Radiation exposure also occurs after internal contamination, i.e., when a radionuclide is ingested, inhaled or absorbed into the blood stream.
  • This kind of exposure stops only if the radionuclide is totally eliminated from the body, with or without treatment.
• An individual exposed only to an external source of radiation, as shown above, is NOT radioactive or contaminated and may be approached without risk, just like after a chest x-ray or CT scan.
• Radiation from external exposure alone is either absorbed without the body becoming radioactive, or it can pass through the body completely.
  • Therefore, if a person is scanned with a radiation survey monitor after external exposure alone, the device will not register radiation above the background level.
• Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) may result if the dose from whole or partial body exposure is high enough.
• How to diagnose ARS: estimate whole body dose and clinical severity by using
  • Time to onset of vomiting
  • Lymphocyte depletion kinetics
  • Physical exam
  • Clinical signs and symptoms associated with ARS and its subsyndromes
• Types of exposure:
  • Whole body exposure: entire person receives penetrating radiation, i.e., no portion of the body is shielded
  • Partial body exposure: shielding of sufficient thickness blocks a significant portion of the person from receiving penetrating radiation