[Clinical course of a radiation lesion under high-mountain conditions]

The development and outcome of radiation disease were studied on dogs kept at an altitude of 3200 m above sea level. Clinical observations, morphological examinations of blood and bone marrow and measurements of blood coagulation parameters were carried out at different time intervals. Our findings demonstrated that irradiation of animals that followed a 25-day altitude acclimatization and their subsequent exposure to an altitude alleviated radiation disease. The clinical course of radiation disease aggravated in dogs that were reacclimatized to highlands after irradiation. It can be postulated that the dogs kept in highlands before and after irradiation developed a more intensive process of restoration, especially of erythropoiesis. They also showed a stable decrease of the blood coagulation rate and long persistence of high fibrinolytic activity of the blood.