Thyroid and adrenal function in children born 5 years after the Chernobyl accident in economically unfavourable regions of Belarus

Abstract

Currently, there is no doubt the need to study the comprehensive influence of ionizing radiation one the body finctions. Under the influence of ionizing radiation, the development of compensatory and adaptive-adaptive mechanisms of the most radiosensitive organs and tissues to reduce post-radiation effects is of particular importance. Under these conditions, a change in the functional activity of the pituitary-thyroid and adrenal systems is possible, the hormones of which are actively involved in the main adaptation processes. A generally recognized fact is the high radiosensitivity of the above systems, especially in a growing child’s body.

In the first days after the accident, the main biologically significant radionuclides were iodine isotopes, which caused the formation of dose loads on the thyroid gland. At present, the long-lived radionuclides ¹³^Cs and ⁹⁰Sr have a decisive influence on the radiation situation in the republic. The greatest contribution to the radiation dose is made by cesium radionuclides.

Some authors studied the functional state of the pituitary-thyroid system in children exposed in 1986 to radioactive iodine in the ante- and postnatal periods.

Issues of the occurrence of functional changes in the thyroid gland and adrenal cortex, induced by the intake of radionuclides that are not deposited in these organs, have hardly been studied.

Of considerable interest is the study of the state of the functions of the thyroid gland and adrenal cortex in children born and living under the influence of low doses of radiation, whose mothers were exposed to radioactive iodine.