Word: fluorescein
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Kurt Lange and David Weiner of the New York Medical College got the idea while studying blood circulation by means of fluorescein, a tracer dye which, injected into the blood, flows freely with it and glows yellow-green under long-wave ultraviolet light. When they froze rabbit tissues (and later that of human volunteers) they found that after a time the whole frozen area glowed brightly, indicating blood concentration...
When the doctors have a patient with a gangrenous foot or strangulated hernia (protruding loop of gut), they wheel him into an operating room, inject fluorescein, a reddish dye, into the vein of his arm. Then they darken the room, shine an ultraviolet lamp on the gangrenous area. The dye should make a circuit of the patient's blood stream in 20 seconds. If the gut or foot is still alive and receiving fresh blood, it will glow yellow green. Then it is safe to tuck the gut back in place, or stimulate circulation...
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