医疗科技在人工肝领域的最新尝试.docVIP

Doctors test latest attempt at artificial liver 医疗科技在人工肝领域的最新尝试 LAURAN NEERGAARD －February 2, 2009 WASHINGTON AP -- Theres help for failing kidneys and failing hearts. But theres no fix for a dying liver. Doctors are trying to change that at a few hospitals around the country, testing a machine packed with human liver cells as a last-ditch chance to survive sudden liver failure. 华盛顿报道―― 目前，现有的医疗技术对于肾衰竭和心脏都，但是对于肝脏衰竭却显得有些力不从心。几医院尝试着利用一个装满人类肝细胞的装置作为 The experiment is the latest in a decades-long quest for an artificial liver, a device that could temporarily take over some of the livers jobs much like dialysis helps kidneys work and cardiac pumps squeeze a flabby heart. 该试验是近几十年来在人工肝研究领域里最前沿的项目装置可以暂时代替部分肝脏的功能，就像肾透析和人工心脏可以替代肾和心脏的功能一样。 Unlike those organs, a damaged liver sometimes regenerates if it has enough recovery time. If its too far gone, a transplant is the only option - but a dying liver starts a fast chain reaction where kidneys shut down, bleeding begins and patients fall into a coma, often too sick to try a transplant even if an organ could be found soon enough. 和其它器官不同的是，肝脏再生和恢复。如果损伤时间太长，面积太大，肝脏移植。但是通常情况下，肝脏很快反应，凝血功能急剧下降，病人进入昏迷状态，很快找到肝源，病人的状态也不适合进行肝脏移植了。 The goal: To help such patients stabilize enough for a transplant, or even to avoid one. 因此，目标是稳定和改善病人病情以帮助他们顺利过渡到肝移植，甚至病情转好到可以避免肝移植。 It doesnt replace a liver, cautions Dr. Todd Frederick of California Pacific Medical Center. 它不是肝脏。加州太平洋医疗中心的Todd Frederick医生。 But, if we could buy some time while the liver is recovering, that potentially would be a great advance, says Dr. Lena Napolitano of the University of Michigan, who like Frederick is helping test the ELAD, or extracorporeal liver assist device. “如果我们能肝脏再生多一些时间的话，这将是一个很的。”和Todd Frederick医生一样正在进行ELAD试验的密歇根大学的Lena Napolitano医生说。 Elizabeth Blaj of San Diego credits the machine with doing just that. 圣地亚哥的Elizabeth Blaj这个的功效称赞。 I believe that machine kept me alive for five days, says Blaj, 40, whose doctors at the Scripps Clinic expected her to die before a