The pattern of radioactive deposit in the bones of two adult animals is illustrated in a sow
sacrificed 38 days postexposure (Fig. 3.6) and in a boar sacrificed 26 days postdetonation (Fig.
3.7). Faint deposits of activity in the trabecular bone were noted, separate from the higher
level in the epiphysis, which is characteristic of uptake of the alkaline earths by adult bone.
Fig. 3.3-—Autoradiograph of Tibia and Femur of Baby Chick
Sacrificed 46 Days Postdetonation (ANL).
Bloom? has shown that atypical osseous tissue in trabecular space is a characteristic
histopathological finding following radioactive depositicn. For example, clinical studies have
shown that following radium deposition in bone, atypical osseous tissue is formed in cancellous
bone. These formations appear as areas of increased density in roentgenograms (Looney"*),
It is difficult to interpret the anomaly in the pig, described above, and the dense trabecular
bone in both the pig and chicken. No normal controls are available for comparison with these
animals, and the history of the animals from the time of exposure to the time of collection is
not known. Severe dietary changes and disease also produce changes in the pattern of deposition of osseous tissue, and such changes are often indistinguishable from changes produced by
exposure to radiation.
3.4 -PATHOLOGY
Sections of lung, liver, and tibia, as well as thyroid and other endocrine organs of most of
the fowl and pigs dying spontaneously or sacrificed, were examined by Reed at NRDL. A few
pathological changes were found, including an aplastic marrow in one of the bones of a duck.
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