The Influence of Varying Dose and Repetitive Short Sessions of Extracorporeal Irradiation of the Blood on the Production of Lymphopenia

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Abstract
The development of Teflon-Silastic semipermanent carotid-to-jugular shunts made it possible to compare the influence of continuous extra-corporeal irradiation (ECI) of the blood of calves with short repetitive sessions extending over days of weeks. Continuous ECI over periods of 36 to 72 hours with transit doses sufficient to produce the desired lymphopenia induced severe hemolysis when a substantial fraction of the red cells accumulated a dose in excess of 100,000 rads. Transit doses low enough to minimize this injury are effective in producing a lymphopenia but the larger lymphocytes soon begin to recover, suggesting compensatory mechanism for producing cells more rapidly or the development of radioresistant clones of proliferating lymphocytic cells. Short daily repetitive sessions spread out over days or weeks, however, proved to be more efficient in producing a lymphopenia and the probability of inducing hemolysis by injury to the red cells is diminished due to daily replacement.