The earliest systemic response to whole-body irradiation: a transient, dose-dependent set of symptoms appearing within hours.
Radiation injury & dose thresholds
Radiation syndromes & sickness
The radiation syndromes and tissue effects, with the approximate whole-body or local dose that causes each. Doses are for acute, single-fraction exposure unless noted; fractionation and dose rate raise tolerances substantially. Tap a card to expand the detail.
9 topics
Radiation destroys the bone-marrow stem cells, producing progressive pancytopenia; it is the treatable, survivable end of acute radiation syndrome.
At these doses the gut mucosa is denuded faster than it can regenerate, producing intractable GI losses and sepsis; survival is rare.
The highest-dose whole-body syndrome: catastrophic CNS and vascular injury with rapid, inevitable death.
Local high-dose skin injury graded by severity; dose thresholds are local (not whole-body) and depend on fractionation and dose rate.
Ionizing radiation impairs germ cells; temporary and permanent sterility thresholds differ by sex and dose rate.
The lens is highly radiosensitive; radiation-induced cataracts are a classic deterministic effect with a low threshold.
The lung is moderately radiosensitive; radiation pneumonitis is a dose-limiting complication of thoracic irradiation.
Radiation effects split into deterministic (threshold, severity rises with dose) and stochastic (no threshold, probability rises with dose).