ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo establish a dose-effect curve for semi-automatic analysis of dicentric chromosomes(DC) based on an automatic chromosome analysis system. Methods A total of three healthy volunteers were recruited as the study subjects, and their peripheral blood was collected and stimulated by X-ray at doses of 0.00, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 2.00, 3.00, 4.00, and 5.00 Gy, with the absorbed dose rate of 1.0 Gy/min. Images of DC in the mid-stage of cell division were collected using a high-throughput automatic chromosome analysis system. The DCScore software was used to automatically analyze DC aberrations, and a dose-effect curve for semi-automatic analysis of DC was fitted after manual confirmation. The fitted dose-effect curve for semi-automatic analysis of DC was validated for accuracy using three proficiency test samples from the national quality assessment of biological dose. Results The incidence of DC increased with increasing irradiation doses in the range of 0.00-5.00 Gy (P<0.01). The dose-effect curve for the fitted semi-automatic analysis of DC was ŷ =0.000 8 (±0.000 2) +0.009 2(±0.000 9) D+0.014 2(±0.000 4) D2 (R2= 0.999 8). The relative deviation between the estimated dose and the actual dose of the three test samples was about 20.00%, indicating curve applicability for biological dose estimation. Moreover, excluding the time spent on manual analysis, the semi-automatic analysis method increased the analysis efficiency by 26.0 times. Conclusion The semi-automatic analysis dose-effect curve for DC stimulated by X-ray is constructed for biological dose estimation, which can reduce the manual analysis time, and holds great potential for application in nuclear emergency response to large-scale radiation accidents.