Acute radiation syndrome

What it is

A rare radiation-induced disorder resulting from whole body exposure to large doses of penetrating radiation (>0.7 Gray) within a very short period of time (usually minutes) and characterized by bone marrow syndrome with pancytopenia (mild symptoms of which may occur already at 0.3 Gray), gastrointestinal syndrome resulting in mostly fatal infection, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance (occurring at doses >10 Gray), and cardiovascular/central nervous system syndrome with watery diarrhea, convulsions, coma, and death within three days of exposure (occurring at doses >50 Gray). The syndrome develops in four clinical stages (prodromal/latent/manifest illness/recovery or death) of variable duration.

Key facts

Prevalence

1-9 / 1 000 000 (Europe)

Age of onset

All ages

Inheritance

Not applicable

Classified as

Particular clinical situation in a disease or syndrome

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

Cross-references