Quantitative changes in the arterial blood gases of mice following localized irradiation of the lungs.

The arterial pH and partial pressures of oxygen (PaO2) and carbon dioxide (PaCO2) were evaluated in LAF 1 mice 15 and 38 weeks after localized irradiation of the animals' thoraxes. Graded radiation doses of 900 to 1200 rad were administered. These doses resulted in 0 to 100% lethality by 26 weeks (180 days) after irradiation. At 15 weeks after treatment mice receiving radiation doses which would subsequently result in lethality (by 180 days) exhibited significant reductions in their PaO2 and elevations in their PaCO2 values, respectively. However, there was no clear dose-response relationship between blood gas values and radiation dose, which may reflect the animals' ability to compensate for their poor blood gas exchange by an increased breathing frequency. At 38 weeks after irradiation the blood gas values were abnormal in mice from groups which had normal blood gas values at Week 15 (and no fatalities by Week 26) but in which animal deaths had occurred between Weeks 26 and 38. These data therefore indicated (i) that abnormal blood gas values occurred in the mice prior to fatalities resulting from the acute radiation pneumonitis syndrome and (ii) that mice surviving the initial radiation pneumonitis phase could still succumb to progressive pulmonary toxicity which was reflected by the increasing levels of animal lethality and altered blood gas tensions at the later times.