Acute radiation syndrome

Over the last decades, along with progress and development of using ionizing radiation, including the fields of power engineering or nuclear weapons, it was possible to observe and describe negative effects of the radiation on human body. The phenomenon referred to as acute radiation syndrome describes the effects of radiation on living cells, depending on exposure time and absorbed dose, which affects the functioning of entire organism after the exposure. The following work describes how ionizing radiation causes changes at the cellular and tissue level, both directly and indirectly, taking into account the variables affecting final effects of exposure. Consecutive phases of acute radiation syndrome were distinguished, and the focus was also on individual groups of disorders resulting from exposure, which may overlap and coexist, i.e. hematopoietic syndrome, gastrointestinal syndrome and neurovascular syndrome, as well as developing multi-organ failure in some of the cases, leading to the patient's death. Exposure to ionizing radiation can result in diversified, variably intensified and spread over time symptoms from many organ systems. Depending on the characteristics of the exposure, its effects will differ, and thus the prognosis for the patient.