Clinical observation of a 16-year-old female exposed to radiationin utero: follow-up after the Shanxi Xinzhou radiation accident

A follow-up study of the late effects of intrauterine exposure to irradiation has been made on a 16-year-old girl whose mother was exposed to external 60Co irradiation during the Xinzhou radiation accident 16 years previously. The outcomes of the general medical examinations, conventional chromosome aberration analyses and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) are presented and the China-revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (C_WISC) was used to identify her IQ level, which was well below normal for her age. The biological dose of the radiation to which she was exposed when she was in her mother's uterus was inferred to be 1.85 Gy. Although there is no evidence of any other developmental changes or tumour induction at this stage in her life, the child's total intelligence level does appear to have been affected.