For radiation sickness to occur, the doses received must be high and belong to the group of penetrating radiation.
Radiation sickness is the set of symptoms that occur as a result of exposure to high doses of ionizing radiation.
In general, the exposure must be in a short period of time. It is also known as acute radiation syndrome or radiotoxemia.
For radiation sickness to occur, the doses received must be high and belong to the group of penetrating radiation.
That is, those that have the ability to reach the internal organs.
In turn, when we speak of a short period of time, we refer to just minutes in nuclear explosions or a few weeks in other circumstances.
Clinical picture of radiation sickness
Radiation sickness develops in 4 clinical stages that have variable duration and intensity:
Prodromal.
Latent.
manifest.
Recovery or death.
The chances of presenting symptoms increase as the dose is greater than 0.7 grams. The cause of death, as we will discuss later, is associated with severe infections or destruction of the bone marrow.
Dehydration with hydroelectrolyte imbalance and coma can also occur in the process.