Volume 14, No. 2 
April 2010

 
  Rafael A. Rivera, MD

 
 

Front Page

 
 
Select one of the previous 51 issues.

 
Index 1997-2010

 
TJ Interactive: Translation Journal Blog

 
  Translator Profiles
A Professional (and Geographic) Journey
by Frieda Ruppaner-Lind

 
  The Profession
The Bottom Line
by Fire Ant & Worker Bee
 
The Translator and his Client: Factoring external determinations into the translational activity
by Dr. Iheanacho A. Akakuru
 
Crowdsourcing
by Danilo Nogueira and Kelli Semolini

 
  In Memoriam
In Memoriam: Josephine Thornton, 1937 - 2010
by Karen Brovey

 
  Translators Around the World
The Efforts of Translators in the Wake of the Haitian Earthquake
by Michael Walker

 
  Nuts and Bolts of Translation
English and Spanish 'Love' Collocations: A Historical Evolution
by Nuria Calvo Cortés and Elena Domínguez Romero

 
  Medical Translation
It doesn't go up, Doc? A stent may be the answer!
by Rafael A. Rivera, M.D., FACP
 
Handling Abbreviations and Acronyms in Medical Translation
by Małgorzata Kasprowicz
 
English-Spanish and Spanish-English Glossary of Ophthalmological Terms
by Concepción Mira Rueda

 
  Book Reviews
The Untold Sixties—When hope was born: an Insider's Sixties on an International Scale
by Alex Gross, reviewed by Gabe Bokor
 
Iain Halliday: Huck Finn in Italian, Pinocchio in English: Theory and Praxis of Literary Translation
Reviewed by Anne Milano Appel, Ph.D.
 
La Fontaine's Bawdy—of Libertines, Louts, and Lechers, translations from Contes et nouvelles en vers by Norman R. Shapiro
Reviewed by Robert Paquin, Ph.D.

 
  Arts & Entertainment
The Role of Trans-modal Translation in Global Cinema
by D. Bannon

 
  Translators' Education
The Importance of Collocation in Vocabulary Teaching and Learning
by Zahra Sadeghi

 
Translators and Computers
Consider the Luddites
by Jost Zetzsche

 
Translators' Tools
Translators’ Emporium

 
  Caught in the Web
Web Surfing for Fun and Profit
by Cathy Flick, Ph.D.
 
Translators’ On-Line Resources
by Gabe Bokor
 
Translators’ Best Websites
by Gabe Bokor

 
Call for Papers and Editorial Policies
  Translation Journal


Medical Translations
 

It Doesn't Go Up, Doc?

A stent may be the answer!

by Rafael A. Rivera, M.D., FACP

he problem of erectile dysfunction (ED) has had considerable attention during recent times. We are all familiar with the advent of Viagra, its widespread use and the subsequent marketing of other similar products. Technically, Viagra and its congeners are PDE5 - phosphodiesterase Type 5 - inhibitors, quite a mouthful. In general terms, PDE5 inhibitors improve erectile function by dispersion into the smooth muscle of the corpora cavernosa of the penis. This increased relaxation of the smooth muscle allows increased blood flow which in turn allows an erection to occur. Wikipedia provides a detailed explanation of the physiology involved in both males and females (1).

Recently, active medical minds have turned to the most common current form of increasing blood flow to other parts of the human body, namely the placement of stents in various arteries of the body - mostly, the coronary arteries of the heart, but also the carotid arteries that supply the brain, the abdominal aorta and its tributaries, the femoral arteries that supply the legs.

The vascular supply to the genital area goes via the pudendal arteries (see figure). Rogers and colleagues (2) have collected data by means of pelvic angiography and selective visualization of the male genital circulation (see illustration). Without going into too much medical jargon, the penis is supplied by the left and right internal pudendal arteries, which are branches of the left and right internal iliac arteries. Just as cholesterol can accumulate in the walls of coronary arteries, it can also accumulate in the walls of the internal pudendal arteries. Rogers' study showed a 100% correlation in patients with coronary artery disease i.e., 100% of patients with CAD (coronary artery disease) also had internal pudendal arteriosclerosis resulting in ED.

1. http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erection

2. Pelvic angiography in non-responders to PDE5 inhibitors http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00574184