Word: gel
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...victims in the U.S. are mostly blacks, and they generally receive less medical attention than whites. The malady affects the red blood cells, which normally are spherical. When the anemia victim is under any stress that reduces the oxygen supply in his blood, his red cells elongate into firm gel-like crescents ("sickles") that block narrow capillaries and deprive tissues of vital oxygen...
...subject. Von Karajan's distinctive blend of rich phrase and richer orchestral sonority customarily works well. But this time he seems surprisingly nonchalant. His drowsy Jupiter, for instance, might better be called Saturn. The best set of these symphonies remains Otto Klemperer's (also on An gel), and- for crisp, detail-laden sound- George Szell's versions of 35, 39, 40, and 41, recently offered at a bar gain price ($6.98) by Columbia...
...substance that fills two-thirds of the eyeball, is vital to vision. The clear, jelly-like material transmits light while maintaining the pressure that helps hold the retina in place. Hemorrhaging, which occurs often in severe diabetes, can cloud the vitreous and impair vision, and loss of its gel-like consistency can result in detachment of the retina. Both conditions can produce blindness...
Holding the Retina. The choice is logical. A protein that helps to fill the spaces between cells of the body, collagen is already used experimentally to replace skin destroyed by burns. Extracted from animal tissue and further purified, the collagen gel is injected into the damaged eye by hypodermic. Once in place, it acts as both a light-transmitting substance and a source of pressure, filling the eye and holding the retina in place...
Experimentation with the collagen gel has been encouraging. In tests undertaken recently, no subject rejected the purified collagen as a foreign substance. Nor does the collagen liquefy. Instead, it is gradually absorbed as new ocular fluid appears naturally, usually within four weeks. Meanwhile, the gel promotes the return of vision. On one series of patients treated by Dr. Donald M. Shafer, the collagen gel was administered as part of a regular surgical procedure to seven people with eye hemorrhages. In three cases, there was a recurrence of the hemorrhaging, and the damage was too severe to be corrected. But four...