Radiation Dose Prediction Using Data on Time to Emesis in the Case of Nuclear Terrorism

The authors performed statistical analysis on estimated radiation dose and time to emesis in 108 cases of known radiation exposure over a 55-year period. They conclude that time to emesis is a quick and inexpensive way to estimate radiation dose, but it is imprecise and may lead to false positives. It therefore should be used with other methods to estimate dose received following exposure.