Doctor: The patient had been experiencing back and leg pain. █ ████████████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████ █ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ █████ █████████████ █████ ███ ██ ████ █████ █████ █ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ █ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███████ █ █████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ █████
The author concludes that pressure on a certain nerve was causing the patient’s back and leg pain.
Why?
Because a computer scan provided evidence of pressure on that nerve. Pressure can cause inflammation, which can cause pain.
Moreover, if there was nerve inflammation, a cortisone injection would reduce inflammation.
After administering a cortisone injection, the patient experienced reduced pain.
The author assumes that there’s no other reason the patient could have had reduced pain following the cortisone injection other than the injection’s ability to reduce pressure on the nerve. (This overlooks the possibility that the injection might have helped reduce pain by relieving some other aspect of the patient’s body, such as a different nerve or muscle.)
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
Computerized scans are ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███████ █████ ██ █████████
The cortisone injection ███ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████
The pain relief ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████
Only cortisone injections ███ █████ █ █████████ ██ ██ ████████████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████
The best treatment ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███████ █ ████ ████ ████████ █████████████