TY - JOUR PY - 2004// TI - Effect of low doses of ionising radiation in infancy on cognitive function in adulthood: Swedish population based cohort study JO - BMJ A1 - Hall, Per A1 - Adami, Hans-Olov A1 - Trichopoulos, Dimitrios A1 - Pedersen, Nancy L. A1 - Lagiou, Pagona A1 - Ekbom, Anders A1 - Ingvar, Martin A1 - Lundell, Marie A1 - Granath, Fredrik SP - 19 EP - 19 VL - 328 IS - 7430 N2 - OBJECTIVE: To determine whether exposure to low doses of ionising radiation in infancy affects cognitive function in adulthood. DESIGN: Population based cohort study. SETTING: Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: 3094 men who had received radiation for cutaneous haemangioma before age 18 months during 1930-59. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Radiation dose to frontal and posterior parts of the brain, and association between dose and intellectual capacity at age 18 or 19 years based on cognitive tests (learning ability, logical reasoning, spatial recognition) and high school attendance. RESULTS: The proportion of boys who attended high school decreased with increasing doses of radiation to both the frontal and the posterior parts of the brain from about 32% among those not exposed to around 17% in those who received > 250 mGy. For the frontal dose, the multivariate odds ratio was 0.47 (95% confidence interval 0.26 to 0.85, P for trend 0.0003) and for the posterior dose it was 0.59 (0.23 to 1.47, 0.0005). A negative dose-response relation was also evident for the three cognitive tests for learning ability and logical reasoning but not for the test of spatial recognition. CONCLUSIONS: Low doses of ionising radiation to the brain in infancy influence cognitive abilities in adulthood.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0959-535X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.328.7430.19 ID - ref1 ER -