Gamma radiation produced performance decrement in rat as assessed with the accelerod

Early transient incapacitation (ETI) and/or performance decrement (PD) is a reduction in performance during the first 30 min after exposure to a relatively high, rapidly delivered dose of ionizing radiation. The accelerod provides a sensitive measure of functional impairment in neurotoxic evaluations of chemical agents and demonstrates that the motor performance of gamma-radiation-exposed Sprague-Dawley rats was significantly different from that of sham-radiated controls.