Which of the following statements regarding the treatment of radiation accident victims is false?
If the radiation exposure is known to be less than 4 to 5 Gy (400-500 rad), most expes recommend that the patient is watched carefully but only treated in response to specific symptoms, such as antibiotics for an infection, fresh platelets for local haemorrhage, and so on. If the dose is known to have exceeded about 5 Gy (500 rad), then death from the hematopoietic syndrome 3 to 4 weeks later is a real possibility. In some countries, isolation and barrier nursing--that is, isolation from others so that they do not come in contact with possible infections while their blood count is low--is recommended. It has been shown in animals that the LD50 can be raised by a factor of about 2 by the use of antibiotics, and there is no reason to suppose that the same is not true in humans. The impoant things are to avoid infection, bleeding, and physical trauma during the period in which the circulating blood elements reach a nadir and to give the bone marrow a chance to regenerate. Below about 8 Gy (800 rad), an exposed person is likely to survive with careful nursing and an antibiotic screen because the LD50 can be approximately doubled by such conservative measures. In such cases, therefore, a transplant is not necessary. Above about 10 Gy (1,000 rad) death from the gastrointestinal syndrome is inevitable, and so a bone-marrow transplant is of no use. Reference: Eric J Hall Textbook of Radiobiology for Radiologist; 5th edition
At doses less than 4 to 5 Gy, the patient is only treated in response to specific symptoms
At doses 5-8 Gy, infection, bleeding and physical trauma are to be avoided during the period in which the circulating blood elements have a low concentration
At doses 8-10 Gy, a bone-marrow transplant can be administrated
At doses above 10 Gy, a bone-marrow transplant must always be administrated
Radiotherapy