Essential Hypertension after Radiation Exposure - Abstract
The proportion of primary hypertension in women who, at different stages of pregnancy, received irradiation of the thyroid gland (TG) due to the incorporation of radioactive iodine (I131) as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, is about 40% of the whole cardiovascular pathology. The main group for the study included 221 women, the control group included 40 women. The increase in the incidence of this pathology began immediately after the accident, i.e. after 1986. Three decades later, it has no tendency to reach a plateau. In the dynamics of the annual incidence of essential hypertension during the 30 years following the accident, three maximums can be distinguished: in 2003, 2009, and 2014. These data cannot be associated with the detection of pathology as a result of clinical examination, since in the group of non-irradiated pregnant women, identical in age, social status and place of residence, only one case of primary hypertension was recorded during the same period of time. A dose dependence was found in the induction of essential hypertension among women from the main group. This disease occurred during the formation of the absorbed dose by thyroid gland due to radioiodine in the range of 50-100 mGy and more than 160 mGy. The obtained data can be explained by the instability of specific genes of thyroid cells of the organism of pregnant women after the incorporation of I-131, which are capable of being responsible for the synthesis of thyroid hormones, and so in other functions,
which will be reflected in the subsequent appearance of hypertension.