Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The study was focused on evaluation of coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes mellitus type II (DM) onset in emergency workers (EW) who took part in elimination of the Chornobyl accident in 1986 year.

Materials and methods: The EW (n = 443, males) and 172 males not exposed to ionizing radiation (the control group, CG) were involved in the study in 2013–2019. EW absorbed doses of irradiation changed from 4.3 till 710 cGy. Diagnosis of CHD and type II diabetes mellitus (DM) was established in accordance with diagnostic standards of European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Endocrinology. All study subjects had no signs of CHD, and neither of endocrine disease nor of metabolic disorders before the accident.

Results: Patients that came in our hospital had cardiovascular diseases but comorbid diseases also analyzed. DM was diagnosed in 125 EW (28.2 %) and 42 persons (24.2 %) from CG. The onset of CHD was preceded by DM development in 40 (32.0 %) EW and 16 (38.1 %) CG patients. The DM course in EW was not significantly different from non-irradiated control by both severity and such complications as retinopathy, angiopathy of lower extremities and nephropathy; insulin was administered for no one patient. Concomitant DM was associated with a higher incidence of angina pectoris, heart failure and arterial hypertension equally in both groups. There were no significant correlation between absorbed dose and time of CHD or DM onset, as well as with age of these pathology developments. According to the Kaplan-Meier survival method, CHD developed in more young age than DM in EW (56.0 ± 0.4 vs 78.8 ± 0.9 years, log-rank test χ² = 402.8, P = 0.000) and CG patients (60.5 ± 0.7 vs 77.5 ± 1.2 years, log-rank test χ² = 135.5, P = 0.000). In EW the accumulation of new DM cases occurred faster in the EW compared with individuals of CG, however with statistical significance in subjects aged until 60 years old (log-rank test χ² = 4.99, P = 0.026).

Conclusions: Though the terms of CHD and DM onset did not depend on the radiation dose the labor under radiation exposure can be considered as a factor accelerating the development these diseases.

Keywords: chernobyl accident, radiation exposure, emergency workers, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus type.