Medical Uses
Brilliant Blue G has recently been used in scientific experiments to treat spinal injuries in laboratory rats. It acts by reducing the body's natural swelling response, which can cause neurons in the area to die of metabolic stress. Testing is still in progress to determine whether this treatment can be used effectively in humans. The recent tests have administered the dye within 15 minutes of injury, but to be effective in a real-life setting, where it may take time for a patient to reach the emergency room, the treatment should be effective even when administered up to two hours after injury. The only reported side effect was that the rats temporarily turned blue.
Under the trade name Brilliant Peel, Brilliant Blue G is used as a stain to assist surgeons in retinal surgery.
Read more about this topic: Coomassie Brilliant Blue
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“Homoeopathy is insignificant as an art of healing, but of great value as criticism on the hygeia or medical practice of the time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There may perhaps be a new generation of doctors horrified by lacerations, infections, women who have douched with kitchen cleanser. What an irony it would be if fanatics continued to kill and yet it was the apathy and silence of the medical profession that most wounded the ability to provide what is, after all, a medical procedure.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)