In the 1940s and 1950s, particularly in Great Britain, it was common practice to treat patients with ankylosing spondylitis with radiation. Ankylosing spondylitis is an arthritis-like condition of the vertebral column.
{"Image DocumentName": "In the 1940s and 1950s, particularly in Great Britain, it was common practice to treat patients with ankylosing spondylitis with radiation. Ankylosing spondylitis is an arthritis-like condition of the vertebral column.", "Image ImageDescription": "Patients cannot walk upright or move except with great difficulty. For relief, they would be given fairly high doses of radiation to the spinal column, and the treatment was quite successful. Patients who previously had been hunched over were able to stand erect. Radiation therapy was a permanent cure and remained the treatment of choice for approximately 20 years, until it was discovered that some who had been cured by radiation were dying from leukemia. During the period from 1935 to 1955, 14,554 male patients were treated at 81 different radiation therapy centers in Great Britain. Review of treatment records showed that the dose to the bone marrow of the spinal column ranged from 100 to 4000 rad (1 to 40 Gy). Fifty-two cases of leukemia occurred in this population. When this incidence of leukemia is compared with that of the general population, the relative risk is 10:1.", "Image XResolution": "37", "Image YResolution": "37", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "SlidePlayer", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}