[A comparative study on the incidence of symptoms known as " Darkroom Disease" amongst X-ray department personnel & physiotherapists]

Symptoms of the "Darkroom Disease" amongst X-ray personnel are well reported. In this study, radiographers have been compared to physiotherapists to see if there is any link between the occurrences of symptoms with processing chemicals. The aim of this study was to find the prevalence of these symptoms amongst radiographers. Sixty nine radiographers from 13 hospitals of Tehran Medical School University were compared with 72 physiotherapists from those hospitals. Respondents were asked to identify, by means of questionnaire, any of the symptoms like dermatitis, sore throat, allergy, shortness of breath etc., described as "Darkroom Disease" from which they suffer. Data provided by this work demonstrated that radiographers suffered more from shortness of breath (P=0.013 & for men P=0.045), nausea (men P=0.049), and physiotherapists suffered more from catarrh (P= 0.044 & for men P=0.046), as well as joint pain (men P=0.04). The results from this preliminary work suggests that there is a link between using the processing chemicals and incidence of these symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea among radiographers (P< 0.05), and it seems that the incidence of dermatitis and the history of this disease are linked.