Rapid dicentric assay of human blood lymphocytes after exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation

: The probability of losses of different chromosome aberrations during the dicentric chromosome assay of metaphase cells with incomplete sets of chromosome centromeres was estimated using a mathematical model for low doses of ionizing radiation. A dicentric assay of human blood lymphocytes without determination of the total amount of chromosome centromeres in cells without chromosome aberrations (rapid dicentric assay) has been proposed. The rapid dicentric analysis allows to register chromosome aberrations in full compliance with the conventional classification. The experimental data have shown no statistically significant difference between the frequencies of dicentric chromosomes detected by rapid and classical dicentric chromosome assays of human lymphocytes exposed to 0.5 Gy of 60Co gamma-rays. The rate of the rapid dicentric assay was almost twice as high as that of the classical dicentric assay.