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Sister Chromatid Exchanges in Lymphocytes in Operating Room Personnel
Author(s) -
Husum B.,
Wulf H. C.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1980.tb01498.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sister chromatids , sister chromatid exchange , anesthesia , sister , toxicology , genetics , in vitro , gene , chromosome , biology , sociology , anthropology
Sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) and sister chromatid exchange points (SCE‐points) were counted in lymphocytes in peripheral blood drawn from hospital personnel exposed to anaesthetics as well as from persons not exposed. A total of 38 healthy persons were investigated, representing female nurse anaesthetists, male physicians practising anaesthesia, female nurses from the intensive care unit, and female secretaries. The mean SCE number per cell for each person was used as the variable, and the Mann‐Whitney U‐test was applied to test for differences between groups. The group of secretaries seemed to differ from the other three groups, which appeared identical (P<0.001). Correlation of cigarette smoking and number of SCE could not be demonstrated (r=.255, n = 38). It was concluded that by this method there was no indication of a mutagen effect of long‐term exposure to waste anaesthetic gases such as halothane and nitrous oxide.