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Review
. 2020 Apr 16;10(4):41.
doi: 10.3390/life10040041.

Radiation-Induced Cerebro-Ophthalmic Effects in Humans

Konstantin N Loganovsky  1 , Donatella Marazziti  2 , Pavlo A Fedirko  1 , Kostiantyn V Kuts  1 , Katerina Y Antypchuk  1 , Iryna V Perchuk  1 , Tetyana F Babenko  1 , Tetyana K Loganovska  1 , Olena O Kolosynska  1 , George Y Kreinis  1 , Marina V Gresko  1 , Sergii V Masiuk  1 , Federico Mucci  2   3 , Leonid L Zdorenko  1 , Alessandra Della Vecchia  2 , Natalia A Zdanevich  1 , Natalia A Garkava  4 , Raisa Y Dorichevska  1 , Zlata L Vasilenko  1 , Victor I Kravchenko  1 , Nataliya V Drosdova  1
Affiliations
Review

Radiation-Induced Cerebro-Ophthalmic Effects in Humans

Konstantin N Loganovsky et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) could affect the human brain and eyes leading to both cognitive and visual impairments. The aim of this paper was to review and analyze the current literature, and to comment on the ensuing findings in the light of our personal contributions in this field. The review was carried out according to the PRISMA guidelines by searching PubMed, Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO and Google Scholar English papers published from January 2000 to January 2020. The results showed that prenatally or childhood-exposed individuals are a particular target group with a higher risk for possible radiation effects and neurodegenerative diseases. In adulthood and medical/interventional radiologists, the most frequent IR-induced ophthalmic effects include cataracts, glaucoma, optic neuropathy, retinopathy and angiopathy, sometimes associated with specific neurocognitive deficits. According to available information that eye alterations may induce or may be associated with brain dysfunctions and vice versa, we propose to label this relationship "eye-brain axis", as well as to deepen the diagnosis of eye pathologies as early and easily obtainable markers of possible low dose IR-induced brain damage.

Keywords: angiopathy; brain; glaucoma; ionizing radiation; neurocognitive deficits; optic neuropathy; retinopathy.

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Conflict of interest statement

the authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Article selection flow chart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Typical example of radiation cataract at the second stage. (by courtesy of P. Fedirko and T. Babenko from the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (NRCRM), Kyiv, Ukraine, copyright of co-authors [42].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Retinal abnormalities in the irradiated group detected with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) (a), as compared with non-exposed control subjects (b) (by courtesy of P. Fedirko and T. Babenko from the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (NRCRM) Kyiv, Ukraine, copyright of co-authors [16,20].
Figure 4
Figure 4
The initial stage of macular degeneration in ARS 1st grade convalescent (OCT data) (by courtesy of P. Fedirko and T. Babenko from the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (NRCRM), Kyiv, Ukraine, (copyright of co-authors [75,76]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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