On the Way to a Decision Support Tool for Treatment of Irradiated Persons Based on Hemopoietic Models

Abstract

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 has drastically demonstrated the need of taking fast actions. The large number of acute irradiated persons could not be treated within a short time after the accident. In order to provide the limited number of medical doctors with the best possible diagnosis tool for each case these doctors have to be supported in their diagnosis by a powerful decision support system. A promising new approach for radiation accidents includes biomath-ematical modeling to assist the diagnosis in the development of first therapeutic strategies. Detailed studies have indicated that the granulocytes in the blood are the most relevant quantitative indicators of the hemopoietic system in treating irradiated persons.
This contribution outlines the new approach in the development of a prototype of a decision support tool and, especially, reports about the successful implementation of a dynamic biomathematical model. The model is capable of predicting the time evolution of the dominant biological indicator and, thus, supplies information about the severeness of the radiation damage. An outlook on future research in radiation exposure and an extensive list of references conclude this tutorial.