New Diagnostic Tests Are Developed
Overview
Advances in medical diagnostics in the early twentieth century armed physicians with new tools and methods for diagnosing the maladies of their patients. Scientists borrowed from recent advances in physics, chemistry, and microbiology to create valuable technologies for the diagnosis of disease and injury. A half-century of war and social change prompted the development of some new tests, while meticulous planning in disease prevention resulted in the development of other diagnostic methods.
Background
Prior to 1900 the physician's main diagnostic tools were his assessment skills and his microscope. The relatively new science of bacteriology offered confirmation of some infectious diseases, although most often diagnosis was made according to the patient's symptoms and the course of the disease. The Wasserman test, designed in 1906 by German bacteriologist August von Wasserman, provided a definitive diagnosis for syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease known since ancient times. Wassermann built on newly discovered basics of immunity to create a test that showed the presence of antibodies in the blood or spinal fluid in persons infected with syphilis.
Before the Wasserman test, physicians often had difficulty making a diagnosis of syphilis until its late stages, when the patient was no longer infectious to others.
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