[Use of laser correlation spectroscopy for evaluation of metabolic changes in workers engaged in radiation-dangerous...

The pattern of metabolic changes was studied in nuclear fuel plant workers by laser correlation spectroscopy (LCS) of biological fluids (blood serum and plasma, urine, oropharyngeal lavages (OPL). Plasma samples were divided into 3 groups: 1) control (unirradiated) samples; 2) those irradiated by below 100 mZv; 2) those irradiated by more than 100 mZv. With larger dose irradiation, the contribution of small particles (6-8 nm) to the dispersion of increased and the proportion of large components (300-400 nm) decreased. There was a correlation between the total accumulated dose, the dose in the past 9 months and the changes in the contribution of the above groups of particles to light diffusion. The found regulations in the changes of the subfraction composition of blood agree with earlier data on changes in the serum of nuclear fuel workers. Analysis of urine samples revealed an increase in the contribution of catabolic processes. That of OPL showed the preponderance of anabolic changes over catabolic ones in the presence of a considerable contribution of normologically similar LC spectra. Differences were found in the pattern of metabolic changes in relation to technological stages. Although the nature of the observed spectral transformations remains unknown, the simplicity and rapidity of the LCS technique may be considered as a suitable tool for detecting the effects caused by small dose irradiation and other factors.