XIV 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF RADIATION UPON 

 ORGAN AND BODY SYSTEMS 



Stafford L. Warren 



Division of Radiology, Department of Medicine, University of Rochester 



School of Medicine and Dentistry and Strong Memorial 



Hospital, Rochester, New York 



Introduction. Critical. General concept. Skin. Blood vessels and the reticulo- 

 endothelial sijsteyn. Connective tissue. Dosage, wave-length, and skin. Effect of 

 general body irradiation. Gastro-intestinal tract. Lungs and heart. Kidney. 

 Adrenals. Eye. Ear. Nerve tissue. Bone and cartilage. Hematopoietic system. 

 Gonadal system. Miscellaneous. Summary. References. 



INTRODUCTION 



The purpose of this review is to correlate the known facts concerning 

 the physiological effects upon body and organ systems of the various 

 radiations making up the electromagnetic spectrum. 



The widespread application of various portions of the electromagnetic 

 spectrum for therapeutic and experimental purposes has made essential 

 a more accurate knowledge of the effects of these radiations upon body 

 tissues. The student and investigator is rather overwhelmed by the 

 immense volume of literature which has developed within the last ten 

 years in the field of "radiation effects" upon tissues. For general refer- 

 ences dealing with roentgen and radium radiation effects up to the 

 advent of 200-kv. equipment, the reader is referred to Colwell and Russ 

 (46), reviews of the German Uterature by Schwarz (331), Kuhlmann 

 (181), Flaskamp (105), Fuhs and Konrad (108), Zwerg (403, 404), Waters 

 and Kaplan (381), Dessauer (75), Mavor (216), critical reviews by Cas- 

 pari (39), Holthusen (158), Warren (369), Packard (260), and an exhaus- 

 tive summarization of the physiological effects upon certain organs by 

 Desjardins (70, 72, 73, 74). For data concerning ultra-violet radiation, 

 important reviews are those by Laurens (191), Ellis and Wells (93), 

 Mayer (218), and Kuhlmann (182). Lacassagne (184, 187) discusses the 

 evidence in favor of the direct and selective action of roentgen radiation 

 upon body cells. In vitro work on embryonic tissue cells is reported in 

 detail by Cox and Spear (52). 



CRITICAL 



The greatest difficulty encountered in attempting to correlate the 

 effects of any radiations upon the body systems is due to the variations 



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