Before revision: Clinically-relevant forms of acute cell injury, which include stroke and myocardial infarction, have been of long-lasting challenge in terms of successful intervention and treatments. Although laboratory studies have shown it is possible to decrease cell death after such injuries, human clinical trials based on laboratory therapies have generally failed. We suggested these failures are due, at least partially, to the lack of a quantitativetheoretical framework for acute cell injury.
After revision: Clinically-relevant forms of acute cell injury, such as stroke and heart attack, are of tremendous impact and have attracted huge amounts of research effort. The biomedical research that seeks cures for these conditions has been dominated by a qualitative, inductive mindset. Although the inductive approach has not been effective in developing medical treatments, it has amassed enough information to allow construction of quantitative, deductive models of acute cell injury.