Joint Report: Effects of Atomic Radiation on the Brain in Man; A Study of the Brains of Forty-Nine Hiroshima and Nagasaki Casualties

Pages 79-137, [1]. Figures (photographs). Tables. References. Ex-library with few library markings. Inscribed by principal author, Hirotsugu Shiraki to D. J. Kimeldorf at top of front page. Dr. Shiraki was a giant in Japanese Neuropathology. His signature is inscription in English is extremely rare. The Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering neuropathology and experimental neuroscience. It was established in 1942 and is the official journal of the American Association of Neuropathologists. This article was dedicated to 11 Japanese who perished at Hiroshima and 1 who died at Nagasaki during the course of their study of material on which this article is based. 11 died on September 17th, 1945 in an avalanche. Dr. Saburo Hakamada of Tokyo University died of small pox. This report is in supplementation of the publications of Shiraki and Uchimura and Shirake on the neuropathoogical changes in 37 casualties of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The duration of the illness in these individuals varied from 19 to 64 days. 12 cases had been added, bringing the total dealt with to 49. The exposure in Hiroshima and Nagasaki consisted essentially of immediate radiation by gamma rays and by penetrating neutrons. Second radiation from residual activity, either induced or from fallout, was considered negligible. Of the 49 cases, 33 came from Hiroshima and 16 from Nagasaki. In all cases the clinical picture was that of radiation sickness. Mental and neurological disturbances occurred in several of the patients, but had no localizing import. Increased vascular permeability was one of the most conspicuous features in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki cases, Whether ionization in the brain from atom-bomb explosion contributed to the increase could not be determined. Reprinted from Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, Volume XVII, No. 1, January 1958.…