Systematic Review Of Some Indicators For Health Monitoring Of Radiation Workers And Countermeasure Analysis

Objective:The aim of this work is to investigate health surveillance status ofradiationworkers and quantitatively analysis the effects of low-dose ionizing radiation oncrystalline lens, the frequencies of chromosome aberrations andmicronucleus-containing cells of radiation workers.Methods:All of the Meta-analyses werecarried out by using the software of Stata12.0.Nineelectronic databases were systematically quarried for previous published works toevaluate the effects of low-dose ionizing radiation on crystalline lens, the frequenciesof chromosome aberrations and micronucleus-containing cells. The researchinformation were accessible to17608subjects from28works on lens opacity and1970626cells from21works on cytogenetic effects. Cochrane’s Q and I2statisticswere applied to appraise the heterogeneity of theseworks and their correspondingpooling odds ratios (OR) with95%confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated byusing random-effects models or fixed-effects models. In addition, the publicationbiases were also calculated.Results:1. The relationship between occupational radiation exposure and lens opacityIt has shown that an increase of the pooling OR of lens opacity[OR(95%CI)=2.51(2.01,3.13)]was observed for the radiation workers whencompared withthe control group. In addition, a moderate heterogeneity was alsoindicated（χ2=51.10，P<0.05，I2=56.9%）. However, the source of heterogeneity andthe publication biases have not been identified. 2. The relationship between occupational radiation exposure and posteriorsubcapsular opacitiesCompared withthe control group, the pooling OR of posterior subcapsularopacities [OR(95%CI)=4.03(2.77,5.85)] were increased for the radiation workers,and no heterogeneity（χ2=1.95，P>0.05，I2=0.0%）and publication bias have beenindicated.3. The relationship between occupational radiation exposure andchromosome-type aberrationsIt has exhibited that the pooling OR of chromosome-type aberrations[OR(95%CI)=3.03(2.59,3.56)] were increased for the radiation workers whencompared with the control group. However, no heterogeneity（χ2=5.24，P>0.05，I2=23.7%）and publication bias have also beendetected.4. The relationship between occupational radiation exposure and dicentric pluscentric ringsIt has shown that the pooling OR of dicentric plus centric rings[OR(95%CI)=4.12(2.99,5.67)] were increased for the radiation workers whencompared with the control group. Again, no heterogeneity（χ2=6.31，P>0.05，I2=0.0%）and publication bias have beenobserved.5. The relationship between occupational radiation exposure and translocationsIt has presented an increase of the pooling OR of dicentric plus centric rings[OR(95%CI)=2.73(1.67,4.46)] for the radiation workers when compared with thecontrol group. Moderate heterogeneity has been determined as:χ2=16.45，P<0.05，I2=69.6%, and its heterogeneity mainly came from one of the identified studied. Inaddition, publication biases have obviously been indicated.6. The relationship between occupational radiation exposure andmicronucleus-containing cellsIt has shown that the pooling OR of micronucleus-containing cells[OR(95%CI)=1.70(=1.40,2.06)] were increased for the radiation workers whencompared with the control group. High heterogeneity has been indicated（χ2=94.95， P<0.05，I2=91.6%）. The detection methods of micronucleus are associated with thispotential source of heterogeneity which should be taken into account. Publicationbiases have not been indicated.Conclusions:The frequencies of chromosome-type aberrations, dicentric plus centric rings,micronucleus-containing cells in peripheral lymphocytes and posterior subcapsularopacities are significantly increased forthe radiation workers who were occupationallyexposed to low-dose ionizing radiation. The relationship of occupational radiationexposure with lens opacity, translocations needsfurther research. Other detailedplantings are additionallyrequiredaiming to protect the stafffrom the adverse effects ofradiation exposure.