Establishment of an x-ray standard calibration curve by conventional dicentric analysis as prerequisite for accurate radiation dose assessment.

The dicentric assay was established to carry out cytogenetic biodosimetry after suspected radiation overexposure, including a comprehensive documentation system to record the processing of the specimen, all data, results, and stored information. As an essential prerequisite for retrospective radiation dose assessment, a dose-response curve for dicentric induction by in vitro x-ray irradiation of peripheral blood samples was produced. The accelerating potential was 240 kV (maximum photon energy: 240 keV). A total of 8,377 first-division metaphases of four healthy volunteers were analyzed after exposure to doses ranging from 0.2 to 4.0 Gy at a dose rate of 1.0 Gy min. The background level of aberrations at 0-dose was determined by the analysis of 14,522 first-division metaphases obtained from unirradiated blood samples of 10 healthy volunteers. The dose-response relationship follows a linear-quadratic equation, Y = c + alphaD + betaD, with the coefficients c = 0.0005 +/- 0.0002, alpha = 0.043 +/- 0.006, and beta = 0.063 +/- 0.004. The technical competence and the quality of the calibration curve were assessed by determination of the dose prediction accuracy in an in vitro experiment simulating whole-body exposures within a range of 0.2 to 2.0 Gy. Dose estimations were derived by scoring up to 500-1,000 metaphase spreads or more (full estimation mode) and by evaluating only 50 metaphase spreads (triage mode) per subject. The triage mode was applied by performing manifold evaluations of the full estimation data in order to test the robustness of the curve for triage purposes and to assess possible variations among the estimated doses referring to a single exposure and preparation.