RENEB intercomparisons applying the conventional Dicentric Chromosome Assay (DCA)

Ursula Oestreicher, Daniel Samaga, Elizabeth Ainsbury, Ana Catarina Antunes, Ans Baeyens, Leonardo Barrios, Christina Beinke, Philip Beukes, William F. Blakely, Alexandra Cucu, Andrea De Amicis, Julie Depuydt, Stefania De Sanctis, Marina Di Giorgio, Katalin Dobos, Inmaculada Dominguez, Pham Ngoc Duy, Marco E. Espinoza, Farrah N. Flegal, Markus Figel, Omar Garcia, Octávia Monteiro Gil, Eric Gregoire, C. Guerrero-Carbajal, İnci Güçlü, Valeria Hadjidekova, Prakash Hande, Ulrike Kulka, Jennifer Lemon, Carita Lindholm, Florigio Lista, Katalin Lumniczky, Wilner Martinez-Lopez, Nataliya Maznyk, Roberta Meschini, Radia M’kacher, Alegria Montoro, Jayne Moquet, Mercedes Moreno, Mihaela Noditi, Jelena Pajic, Analía Radl, Michelle Ricoul, Horst Romm, Laurence Roy, Laure Sabatier, Natividad Sebastià, Jacobus Slabbert, Sylwester Sommer, Monica Stuck Oliveira, Uma Subramanian, Yumiko Suto, Tran Que, Antonella Testa, Georgia Terzoudi, Anne Vral, Ruth Wilkins, LusiYanti Yanti, Demetre Zafiropoulos, Andrzej Wojcik

Two quality controlled inter-laboratory exercises were organized within the EU project 'Realizing the European Network of Biodosimetry (RENEB)' to further optimize the dicentric chromosome assay (DCA) and to identify needs for training and harmonization activities within the RENEB network. The general study design included blood shipment, sample processing, analysis of chromosome aberrations and radiation dose assessment. After manual scoring of dicentric chromosomes in different cell numbers dose estimations and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were submitted by the participants. The shipment of blood samples to the partners in the European Community (EU) were performed successfully. Outside the EU unacceptable delays occurred. The results of the dose estimation demonstrate a very successful classification of the blood samples in medically relevant groups. In comparison to the 1st exercise the 2nd intercomparison showed an improvement in the accuracy of dose estimations especially for the high dose point. In case of a large-scale radiological incident, the pooling of ressources by networks can enhance the rapid classification of individuals in medically relevant treatment groups based on the DCA. The performance of the RENEB network as a whole has clearly benefited from harmonization processes and specific training activities for the network partners.