THE EFFECT OF HYPOTHERMIA ON RADIATION RESPONSE

In this experimental report, the enhancing effect of hyperthermia on radiation response is searched. Eighty Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to four groups. Group-1 underwent sublethal single fraction 620 cGy total body irradiation (TBI), Group-II had only three-fraction total body hyperthermia (TBH), Group-III had TBBI + Hyperthermia and Group-IV was the control group. On the tenth day after systemic irradiation, intracardiac blood and bone-marrow of all the rats were hematologically and histopathologically assessed and the results were statistically analyzed. The light microscopy of the slides prepared from the femurs of the subjects showed prominent bone marrow hypocellularity, slight hypocellularity, total bone marrow ablation in groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Statistical significance hasn't been found in the hematological evaluation for Hb and Htc values (P>0.1) between the groups whilst leukocyte values were found to be statistically significant between Group I and Group III (P<0.01). In our study, the histological and statistical difference between TBI group and TBI+TBH group show the radiation-potentializing effect of hyperthermia in effective bone marrow ablation.