Improvements in design of a $sup 90$Sr--$sup 90$Y portable blood irradiator

From 26th conference on engineering in medicine and biology; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (30 Sep 1973). Irradiation of blood in an exteriorized loop (extracorporeal irradiation of blood, ECIB) suppresses lymphocyte levels without damage to other body tissues. This is an effective adjunct or alternative to drug therapy for treating some forms of leukemia. Acceptance times of skin allografts have been extended by EClB and the technique has been evaluated for its applicability for immunosuppression relative to renal allografts. Most treatments of both experimental animals and humans have been accomplished by shunting blood through large fixed equipment such as /sup 60/Co, / sup 137/Cs, or X-ray sources, thereby necessitating specialized facilities. With the relatively long treatment regimes required, this severely limits the numbers of patients who can receive treatment and requires the inconvenience and expense of hospitalization. A small inexpensive portable /sup 90/Sr-/sup 90/Y gamma blood irradiator is describe d that will permit chronic exposures of patients prior to and subsequent to kidney transplant. (CH