T OKAIMURA , J APAN - As life returns to here normal this week after the worst nuclear accident ever in the country, sanded worker with the highest radiation dose is prepared for an experimental therapy that may be his best chance to survive the accident. It is expected to receive a transfusion of blood stem cells from his brother Wednesday.
The September 30th incident in a nuclear fuel processing facility 110 kilometers northeast of Tokyo started when workers accidentally set off a nuclear chain reaction. They overloaded settling pond with 16 kilograms of uranium, seven times the amount approved for the procedure. That was enough to trigger a chain reaction runaway, that plant workers were finally able to end 18 hours later. The first reports of an explosion that released radioactive materials were false, officials said, and the radiation levels quickly returned to normal once the reaction has ceased.
Three workers were hospitalized and more than 60 others, including three rescue workers and seven golfers on a nearby course, were found to have been exposed to high levels of radiation. The sicker workers, Hisashi Ouchi, 35, was exposed to about 17 sievert of radiation, according to Science and the National Institute of Technology Agency of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, near Tokyo. Normal background radiation produced a dose of about 2-4 mSv per year, and doses above 5 Sieverts have generally been fatal.
Radiation destroyed lymphatic cells of Ouchi white cells to the immune system of the body. Ouchi is scheduled to receive blood stem cells donated by his brother, in a first procedure for victims of radiation. Hisamaru Hirai, a specialist in cell transplantation at the University of Tokyo Hospital, where the procedure will take place, said stem cell transplantation promises to restore the ability Ouchi generation blood faster than transplants bone marrow. The treatment was used as a nonsurgical alternative to bone marrow transplants for those undergoing cancer treatment. The donor receives a growth factor for several days before the procedure to increase the number of stem cells in the blood. Hirai said the second victim in hospital, which received 10 Sieverts of radiation, received a transfusion of blood stem cells from umbilical cord of a newborn because of the lack of a suitable donor.
0 Komentar