Table 2.
Measured Yields of Stable Intrachromosomal and Stable Interchromosomal Aberrations, for the Four Groups Studied
|
No. of Chromosome Aberrations/No. of Metaphase Cells (Mean Frequency ± SD) in |
||||
| Type of Aberration | Highly ExposedPlutonium Workers(n=11) | Reactor Workers(Zero Plutonium)(n=11) | Moderately ExposedPlutonium Workers(n=4) | ControlIndividuals(n=5) |
| Intrachromosomal stablea | 55/1,488b (3.7 ± .5) | 1/1,478c (.1 ± .1) | 4/458d (.9 ± .4) | 0/629 (0 ± .3) |
| Interchromosomal stablee | 82/1,414f (5.8 ± .6) | 67/1,424 (4.7 ± .6) | 10/444 (2.2 ± .7) | 4/582 (.7 ± .3) |
a
Pericentric inversions, paracentric inversions, and intra-arm deletions in chromosome 5.
b
P <10−4 (Fisher’s exact test) vs. reactor workers, P = .0006 vs. moderately-exposed plutonium workers, P <10−4 vs. control individuals.
c
P <10−4 vs. highly-exposed plutonium workers, P = .01 vs. moderately-exposed plutonium workers, P = .7 vs. control individuals.
d
P = .0006 vs. highly-exposed plutonium workers, P = .01 vs. reactor workers, P = .03 vs. control individuals.
e
Apparently simple translocations between any heterologous pair of chromosomes.
f
Unstable interchromosomal aberrations (dicentrics) (7/1,414 [.5%]) were also detected in this group.