Section of Dermatology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy.
Department of Dermatology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41124 Modena, Italy.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2023 Jul 24;59(7):1356. doi: 10.3390/medicina59071356.
: Chronic ionizing radiation has biological effects on exposed healthcare workers, particularly on the skin. Capillaroscopy of the nail bed represents an easy, low cost, and non-invasive test to obtain information on the effects of chronic radiation exposure in healthcare workers. The aim of this study was to evaluate which capillaroscopic parameters are most associated with biological damage by chronic radiation exposure. : We conducted a case-control study, in which cases were represented by healthcare workers exposed to ionizing radiations and controls by healthy subjects. We recorded anamnestic and personal data, including age and gender, before capillaroscopic examination of proximal nail folds of the fingers of both hands. Ten morphological qualitative/quantitative parameters were taken into consideration, assigning each of them a score on a scale from 0 to 3 (0 = no changes, 1 = <33% abnormal capillaries, 2 = 33-66% of abnormal capillaries, 3 = >66% of abnormal capillaries, for single magnification field at 200×). The parameters evaluated were: changes in the length, distribution and density of capillary loops, reduced visibility, decreased flow, visibility of the sub-papillary plexus, and presence of morphological atypia, such as ectasia, tortuosity, hemorrhage, and signs of neoangiogenesis. : We enrolled 20 cases and 20 controls. The two groups did not differ significantly for gender and age. Cases differed from controls in a statistically significant way for the following parameters: decreased capillary length (number of shortened capillaries) ( < 0.05), increased visibility of the subpapillary venous plexus ( < 0.05), tortuosity ( < 0.01), neoangiogenesis ( < 0.01), and ectasias ( < 0.001). : We found that some capillaroscopic parameters, such as variability in length of capillaries, visibility of subpapillary venous plexus, presence of ectasias, tortuosity, and neoangiogenesis signs, are particularly associated with exposure to ionizing radiation in healthcare professionals. Alterations of these parameters may represent capillaroscopic clues of biological damage by chronic radiation exposure in healthcare professionals. Based on these observations, capillaroscopy may provide clinical data useful to the prevention and follow-up of radiation-exposed healthcare professionals.
: 慢性电离辐射会对暴露于其中的医护人员造成生物学影响，尤其是对皮肤。甲襞毛细血管镜检查是一种简单、低成本且非侵入性的测试，可以获取医护人员慢性辐射暴露影响的信息。本研究的目的是评估哪些毛细血管镜参数与慢性辐射暴露的生物损伤最相关。 : 我们进行了一项病例对照研究，其中病例由接触电离辐射的医护人员组成，对照组由健康受试者组成。在对双手近端甲襞进行毛细血管镜检查之前，我们记录了病史和个人数据，包括年龄和性别。我们考虑了 10 个形态学定性/定量参数，并为每个参数分配了 0 到 3 分（0 = 无变化，1 = <33%异常毛细血管，2 = 33-66%异常毛细血管，3 = >66%异常毛细血管，单倍放大 200×）的评分。评估的参数包括：毛细血管环的长度、分布和密度变化、可见度降低、血流减少、皮下静脉丛的可见度以及形态异常的存在，如扩张、迂曲、出血和新生血管形成迹象。 : 我们共纳入了 20 例病例和 20 例对照。两组在性别和年龄方面无显著差异。病例组与对照组在以下参数上存在统计学差异：毛细血管长度缩短（缩短的毛细血管数量）（ < 0.05），皮下静脉丛可见度增加（ < 0.05），迂曲（ < 0.01），新生血管形成（ < 0.01）和扩张（ < 0.001）。 : 我们发现，一些毛细血管镜参数，如毛细血管长度的可变性、皮下静脉丛的可见度、扩张、迂曲和新生血管形成迹象的存在，与医护人员接触电离辐射特别相关。这些参数的改变可能代表医护人员慢性辐射暴露生物损伤的毛细血管镜线索。基于这些观察结果，毛细血管镜检查可能为辐射暴露医护人员的预防和随访提供有用的临床数据。
