Word: cats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...revolution is pure economics. Gamma-radiation knives, wondrous devices that focus tiny cobalt beams precisely on microscopic brain malignancies and malformations, cost $3 million each but may ultimately reduce the need for other costly therapies and thus afford a net saving to society. Sophisticated scanning devices--computerized axial tomography (CAT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear-imaging systems--cost hospitals millions of dollars, and patients (or their insurers) are typically charged thousands for their use. But by pinpointing hard-to-find tumors and other signs of disease, these machines save invaluable time and further diagnostic testing...
Other medical advances of the final third of our century have been equally dazzling. They include arthroscopic and laparoscopic surgery, effective chemotherapy, the newer reproductive technologies and highly specific drug treatment of mental diseases. Physicians now routinely use sophisticated imaging techniques such as CAT and PET scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and vastly improved radioisotope methods for diagnosis and treatment, plus X ray-guided therapeutic and diagnostic interventions. The increased understanding of ultramicroscopic cellular activities has led to the development of new drugs for a wide variety of disorders, including heart disease...
...other Americans each year, Lee was suffering a stroke. Something had cut off the flow of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to a portion of her brain. Sometimes the culprit is a leaky artery. But in Phillips' case, as in 80% of strokes, the problem, revealed by a CAT scan, was a clot that was plugging up one of the blood vessels in her head. Unless the clot was dislodged, part of her brain would die, leaving her at least partly paralyzed...
...headed the nih study of TPA. But some specialists believe the risk of bleeding from TPA is greater a couple of hours after the stroke. And they are adamant that the drug should never be used after three hours. Neurologists are now learning the subtle signs by which cat scans can reveal how "old" a stroke is, and whether the window of opportunity for TPA has already passed...
...guidelines make clear, the key to successful treatment is two-fold. Doctors must first determine, by performing a cat scan, that the stroke is indeed being caused by a clot and not by a leaky artery. (In such cases, called hemorrhagic stroke, clotting is actually beneficial because it stops the loss of blood.) Then the physicians must ensure that less than three hours have elapsed since the stroke's onset. Otherwise the risk of bleeding into the brain is too great...