THE STRATEGY OF ASSESSING THE IMMUNOLOGIC AL HEALTH OF CHILDREN EXPOSED TO LOW-DOSE RADIATION

Immunological and hormone-metabolic screening has been carried out in a population of children aged 3 to 14 living at territories contaminat ed with radionuclides after the Chernobyl accident and its results wer e compared to those in a population where radiation exposure can be ru led out. The data represent the ''immunological health'' of children c hronically exposed to low-dose radiation. The principal tendencies in the distribution of signs most frequently used for the description of the immune system and of a number of biochemical parameters of the blo od and concentrations of the pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal hormones are virtually normal. Analysis of the mean parameters indicates the ab normality of the population only as regards the high mean level of sup pressor activity of macrophages and shifted mean concentrations of sod ium and prolactin (above the upper threshold normal value). Another ch aracteristic is the heterogeneity of the totality, which is expressed as extreme asymmetry in the distribution of the majority of signs in s tatistical analysis. The heterogeneity of the population is due to the presence of children in whom the hormonal metabolic background ''perm its'' the development of immune abnormalities. The efficacy of immunol ogical screening may be appreciably increased if a purposeful search f or some forms of the so-called metabolism-dependent immunodeficiencies is carried out instead of blind screening of the population.