Læknablaðið - 01.10.1968, Qupperneq 63

LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
221
Fig. 6.
Normal male chromosomes.
tlie chromosomes, whether spontaneous or induced, cannot yet
l)e correlated with any specific disease process. Sorae specific
congenital ahnormalities have long been associated with
abnormalities of one or the other sex chromosomes. While radia-
tion is a powerful means ol' induced chromosomal aberrations,
particularly dicentric chromosomes and ring forms10 (Figs. (i
and 7), these have not been related to any specific pathologic
change. Once chromosomal alterations have been produced by
radiation, they may persist for many years.
A fascinating group of cases has been followed by Hempel-
mann and his colleagues,17 as well as hy others. These are those
patients who had received therapeutic irradiation of their thymic
glands in infancy or childhood for assumed status thymicolym-