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Nuclear medicine patients do not have higher mutant frequencies after exposure to thallium-201
M Bachand1, A M Seifert, K Messing
1Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Quebec à Montréal, Canada.
Mutation Research
|January 1, 1991
Abstract:
The HPRT-lymphocyte clonal assay has been used to detect mutants induced in vivo in humans. This method has previously detected a rise in mutant frequency among nuclear medicine patients following exposure to technetium-99m, at a dose corresponding in theory to 5.1 mGy. In the present study, nuclear medicine patients were sampled before and after exposure to thallium-201, corresponding to a whole-body dose of 4.2 mGy. No rise in mutant frequency was found. We suggest that a difference in the effective dose received by the patients' lymphocytes accounts for the apparent contradiction with earlier results.