title: Enhanced level of micronuclei in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients treated for restenosis with 32P endovascular brachytherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Restenosis is the complete occlusion of the blood vessel leading to such complications as ischemia/angina, myocardial infarction, and death. It can be managed by endovascular brachytherapy with both gamma and beta sources. Endovascular brachytherapy is performed worldwide on several thousands of cases per year. The gamma-emitter 192Ir as well as the beta-emitters 32P and 90Sr are mainly used. The dose to the occluded endothelial wall is 20 Gy. Interestingly, no information with respect to the dose absorbed by the blood during the course of the treatment exists. The aim of the present investigation was to verify if the micronucleus test is suitable to detect the dose absorbed by lymphocytes in the course of endovascular brachytherapy with 32P.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood was drawn from 16 patients immediately before and 1 day after the treatment. Frequencies of micronuclei were assessed. In order to ensure that the micronuclei did not arise due to fluoroscopy or reperfusion, we analyzed lymphocytes of 16 control patients who underwent interventional cardiology with balloon angioplasty only.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Enhanced frequencies of micronuclei were observed in lymphocytes of some donors following brachytherapy. No correlation could be detected between the level of induced micronuclei and the absorbed dose. Also, no effect of fluoroscopy or reperfusion was seen. Thus, although brachytherapy of restenosis with 32P leads to weak enhancement of the micronucleus frequency in lymphocytes, the effect was not seen in all patients; the reason for this heterogeneous response remains to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiobiology and Health Protection, Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland. awojcik@gmx.net
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wojcik
authors.forename: Iwona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Buraczewska
authors.forename: Sylwester
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sommer
authors.forename: Kinga
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brzozowska
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pregowski
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Witkowski
authors.forename: Dariusz
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Garmol
authors.forename: Stanisław
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pszona
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bulski
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000379:methods*; D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D023903:Coronary Restenosis / Q000097:blood / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D048631:Micronucleus, Germline / Q000528:radiation effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016896:Treatment Outcome