Biological effects of ionizing radiation radyology workers

The effects of low doses of radiation are not like the case in acute radiation for radiology workers who are exposed to radiation most. However, the effects on these people caused by long-term exposures of low doses intermittently, in other words chronically, may bring out several years later. It is because the organism could not renew itself for the damages of intermittent radiation exposure, even if it has been in low doses, until the next radiation and because the accumulation of the damages. In this study, we studied on the effects of the radiation exposure on radiology workers because of their profession, regarding bone mineral density and serum ALP. In our study, we compared 49 radiology workers exposed to ionizing and nonionizing radiation due to their profession in Kütahya?s state and private hospitals with 40 non-exposed workers of the same hospitals. The measurements of bone density were performed by means of DEXA (dual X-ray absorptiometry) device and T scores of Lumbar (L1-L4) and hip at the a-p position were determined. Compared to control group, bone density levels of radiology workers were found significantly low (p<0,01). In terms of the device they use and bone density level, MRI was found significantly low compared to tomography and X-ray control group. Among themselves, MRI was found out significantly low regarding X-ray group (p<0.01). In conclusion, it was determined that exposures of ionizing and nonionizing radiation have decreasing effect on bone mineral density of radiology workers.