PrepTest 88, Section 2, Question 19
Doctor: The patient had been experiencing back and leg pain. A computerized scan suggested that there was pressure on a nerve exiting to the leg from a lower vertebra. Such pressure can cause nerve inflammation, which can in turn cause pain. I decided that if the nerve was inflamed, the best way to reduce the inflammation would be a cortisone injection to the nerve, and this, in fact, did result in significant pain relief. I conclude, therefore, that pressure on the nerve in question was causing this patient's back and leg pain.
Doctor: The patient had been experiencing back and leg pain. A computerized scan suggested that there was pressure on a nerve exiting to the leg from a lower vertebra. Such pressure can cause nerve inflammation, which can in turn cause pain. I decided that if the nerve was inflamed, the best way to reduce the inflammation would be a cortisone injection to the nerve, and this, in fact, did result in significant pain relief. I conclude, therefore, that pressure on the nerve in question was causing this patient's back and leg pain.
Doctor: The patient had been experiencing back and leg pain. A computerized scan suggested that there was pressure on a nerve exiting to the leg from a lower vertebra. Such pressure can cause nerve inflammation, which can in turn cause pain. I decided that if the nerve was inflamed, the best way to reduce the inflammation would be a cortisone injection to the nerve, and this, in fact, did result in significant pain relief. I conclude, therefore, that pressure on the nerve in question was causing this patient's back and leg pain.
Doctor: The patient had been experiencing back and leg pain. A computerized scan suggested that there was pressure on a nerve exiting to the leg from a lower vertebra. Such pressure can cause nerve inflammation, which can in turn cause pain. I decided that if the nerve was inflamed, the best way to reduce the inflammation would be a cortisone injection to the nerve, and this, in fact, did result in significant pain relief. I conclude, therefore, that pressure on the nerve in question was causing this patient's back and leg pain.
Which one of the following is an assumption required by the doctor's argument?
Computerized scans are the most accurate way of diagnosing certain kinds of ailments.
The cortisone injection did not reduce pressure on the inflamed nerve in the patient's leg.
The pain relief did not occur merely through the patient's belief in the efficacy of the cortisone.
Only cortisone injections can cause a reduction of an inflammation of a nerve like that in the patient's leg.
The best treatment for back and leg pain is usually a drug that relieves inflammation.
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