Effect of X-Ray on Poliomyelitis Virus in vivo and in vitro. 20

Abstract

The use of Roentgen rays as an adjuvant in the treatment of human poliomyelitis has been widely recommended by a number of clinicians 1 while others 2 have expressed their doubt regarding the value of this form of therapy. Experimentally, the problem has apparently never been approached save for some earlier work of Amoss, Taylor and Witherbee. 3 These experiments, although originally undertaken for a different purpose, served to demonstrate that monkeys subjected to large doses of X-ray developed a more fulminant type of infection than did the controls.

In view of the conflicting clinical reports and in the absence of pertinent experimental data, it appeared worthwhile to investigate whether poliomyelitic monkeys upon exposure to very small doses of X-ray, such as are used successfully in a variety of acute inflammatory conditions, would not benefit from such treatment. There seemed to be at least a possibility that the quicker regression of paralysis alleged to have happened occasionally in human cases after early treatment with X-ray, might have been due to an acceleration in resorption of the perineuronal edema, mechanical pressure of which is generally conceded to exert a deleterious effect on the ganglion cells long before actual destruction has resulted in permanent damage. 4 At the same time it was interesting to determine whether raying of virus in vitro with much larger doses would affect the virulence of the infectious agent.

The experimental data submitted in this paper deal with observations on a total of 12 rhesus monkeys, exclusive of controls, which are distributed over the following 3 groups: