《经济学人》双语：医生也难诊断脑震荡？

原文标题：
Brain injuries
Seeing stars
Diagnosing concussions is hard. A new test could make it easier
脑损伤
看星星
诊断脑震荡很困难，一种新方法让诊断更容易

Even doctors can struggle to diagnose concussions
医生也很难诊断脑震荡

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ON JUNE 23rd a court case brought by more than 200 rugby-union players kicked off in London.
6月23日，200多名橄榄球运动员在伦敦提起了一场法庭诉讼案。

The players claim the sport’s administrators failed in the past to protect them from repeated concussions and blows to the head that, they say, have left them with lifelong brain injuries and early-onset dementia.
这些球员称，体育管理者过去未能保护他们免受反复的脑震荡和头部撞击，这些伤害导致他们终身脑损伤和早发性痴呆。

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Concussions and other forms of brain injury have become one of the biggest worries in sports from soccer to ice hockey.

从足球到冰球等体育运动，脑震荡和其他形式的脑损伤已成为该领域最大的隐患之一。

In America the National Football League, which governs American football, has had to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars to brain-damaged players.
在美国，负责管理美式橄榄球的全国橄榄球联盟不得不向脑损伤的运动员支付数亿美元的赔偿。

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Rugby’s current administrators are scrambling to change things.

橄榄球队现任管理者正在竭力改变现状。

Authorities in France, England and New Zealand have changed the rules to lower the legal height of tackles, in the hope that will prevent at least some head impacts.

法国、英格兰和新西兰的相关机构已经修改了规则，降低了擒抱摔倒的法定高度，希望至少能防止一些头部撞击。

New rules released in April mean that a player with a suspected concussion must be removed from the pitch immediately.
4月发布的新规则意味着，疑似患有脑震荡的球员必须立即离场。

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One of the problems, though, is properly diagnosing concussion in the first place. Currently this is an unreliable art.

然而，问题之一是首先要正确诊断出脑震荡。目前这是一门不可靠的技艺。

Pitch-side doctors must rely on a mix of outward clinical signs and self-reported symptoms, which players keen to return to the fray may underplay.

场边医生必须依靠外在的临床症状和自述症状来综合判断，而那些渴望重返赛场的球员可能会低报症状。

Away from professionally organised sports, where people take spills or butt heads without medical supervision, it is even harder to decide whether damage has been done.
在非职业组织的体育运动中，人们在没有医疗监督的情况下摔倒或头部对撞，更难判断是否造成了脑部损伤。

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Doctors are trying to help.

医生们正在努力提供帮助。

In May the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine published a new set of diagnostic criteria, under which a patient without clear external signs—such as confusion or unconsciousness—would have to report at least two symptoms, such as feeling confused or dizzy, for a concussion to be suspected.

5月，美国康复医学会公布了一套新的诊断标准，根据该标准，没有明显外部症状（例如精神错乱或意识不清）的患者必须报告至少2种症状（例如感到精神错乱或头晕），才能诊断为脑震荡。

But a new development, pioneered by Adam Shuhendler, a biochemist at the University of Ottawa, may bring more rigour.

但是，渥太华大学的生物化学家亚当·舒亨德勒的新研究可能带来更加严谨的诊断方法。

Earlier this month, at the Canadian Chemistry Conference in Vancouver, he laid out how a reliable clinical test for concussion might work.
本月早些时候，在温哥华举行的加拿大化学会议上，他详细阐述了如何进行可靠的脑震荡临床诊断。

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Dr Shuhendler’s specialty is creating dyes that bind to specific molecules in the body.

舒亨德勒博士的专长是创造出与人体内特定分子结合的染料。

In this case, the molecules he has in mind are a class of chemicals called aldehydes.

在这种情况下，他所考虑的分子是一类被称为醛的化学物质。

Though these are thought to function as messengers between many different cells in the body, they seem to be produced in greater quantities in response to cellular stress—including from injury.

尽管这些物质被认为在人体的许多不同细胞之间充当信使角色，但它们似乎在细胞应激（包括受伤）时产生的数量更多。

Perhaps, he thought, the same thing would happen in the brain as well.
他想，也许在大脑中也会发生同样的情况。

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The next step was to check if they could spot concussions in mice.

下一步是检查是否能够在小鼠中发现脑震荡。

That required concussed mice, which the researchers produced with a device that impacted the animals’ heads with enough force to disorient them for a few seconds, but without causing serious damage.

这需要有脑震荡的小鼠，研究人员使用一种装置击打小鼠的头部，力量足以使它们失去方向感几秒钟，但并不会造成严重的脑损伤。

To make the experience better they gave them painkillers—but they did not sedate them, because a sleeping brain is known to react differently to shocks.

为了使它们的体验更好，研究人员给它们服用了止痛药--但没有给它们注射镇静剂，因为众所周知，睡眠中的大脑对刺激有不同的反应。

They then injected the mice with the dye and put them in miniature magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which revealed the dye-marked aldehydes.
然后研究人员给小鼠注射了染料，并将它们放入微型磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪中，这些扫描仪显示了染色的醛类化合物。

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Transferring the technology to humans may take some time. For one thing, the safety of the dye has yet to be proved in people.

将该技术应用于人类可能需要一些时间。因为我们还需要确保染料在人体中的安全性。

Dr Shuhendler thinks one option might be to try the dye with positron emission tomography (PET) scans rather than MRIs.

舒亨德勒博士建议尝试使用正电子发射断层扫描（PET）而不是磁共振成像（MRI）来检查染料。

Though they tend to be more expensive, PET tests are also much more sensitive, and therefore require only trace amounts of dye. That should make getting approval easier.
尽管PET检测的成本更高，但它的敏感性也更高，因此只需使用微量的染料。这应该使获得批准更容易。

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Eventually, it might even be possible to do the diagnosis with a simple blood test.

最终，也许可以通过一项简单的血液检测来确诊脑震荡。

In the meantime, though, a hospital test that offered a definitive diagnosis of concussion would still be useful, because so many are missed by doctors.

但与此同时，医院提供的脑震荡检测仍然是有用的，因为经常会出现医生漏诊情况。

One paper, published in 2018, noted that health statistics suggest around 22m people around the world suffer a mild brain injury every year.

一篇发表于2018年的论文指出，健康统计数据表明全球每年约有2200万人患上轻度脑损伤。

When the researchers tried to correct for undercounting, they arrived at a figure of 55m. But that is still merely an informed guess. It would be useful to be sure.
当研究人员对漏诊进行修正时，实际数字可能达到5500万。但这仍然只是一个有根据的猜测。明确这一点将非常有益。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量703左右）
原文出自：2023年7月1日《The Economist》Science & technology版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
脑震荡Brain Concussion是指头部遭受外力打击后，即刻发生短暂的脑神经功能障碍。临床表现为短暂性昏迷、逆行性遗忘以及头痛、恶心和呕吐等症状，神经系统检查无阳性体征发现。它是最轻的一种脑损伤，经治疗后大多可以治愈。其可以单独发生，也可以与其他颅脑损伤如颅内血肿合并存在。病理改变无明显变化，发生机制仍有许多争论。

醛类化合物Aldehyde是一类含有醛基（-CHO）的有机化合物。醛基由一个碳原子与一个氢原子和一个双键氧原子相连接而成。醛类化合物的通式为R-CHO，其中R代表任何有机基团或氢。醛类化合物由于存在电子提取的氧原子，具有高度的反应性。它们可以发生多种化学反应，包括氧化、还原和亲核加成反应。醛类化合物常用作有机合成中的中间体，是生产各种化学品、药品和香精的重要原料。一些众所周知的醛类化合物包括甲醛、乙醛和苯甲醛。甲醛是一种无色气体，具有毒性，在高浓度下对人体健康有害。有刺激性气味，常被用作消毒剂、防腐剂，以及树脂和塑料的生产。乙醛是一种挥发性液体，有水果般的气味，被用于醋酸、香水和溶剂的生产。苯甲醛是一种无色液体，具有强烈的杏仁味，被用作食品和饮料的调味剂。

正电子发射断层扫描（PET）是一种医学成像技术，用于观察人体内部的代谢和生理过程。它通过检测放射性标记的药物（放射性示踪剂）来生成图像，从而反映出身体的不同部位的功能活动。PET技术可以提供关于组织和器官活动的信息，有助于诊断和治疗疾病。PET扫描可以提供有关脑部、心脏、肺部、肝脏、骨骼和其他器官的信息。在脑部研究中，PET可以帮助识别脑区的功能活动，例如血流、葡萄糖代谢和神经受体的分布。在心脏研究中，PET可以评估心肌血流、心脏功能和心肌代谢。在肿瘤学中，PET扫描可以用于检测和分析肿瘤的代谢活动，从而帮助确定肿瘤的类型、位置和分级。

【重点句子】（3个）
Concussions and other forms of brain injury have become one of the biggest worries in sports from soccer to ice hockey.
从足球到冰球等体育运动，脑震荡和其他形式的脑损伤已成为该领域最大的隐患之一。

Away from professionally organised sports, where people take spills or butt heads without medical supervision, it is even harder to decide whether damage has been done.
在非职业组织的体育运动中，人们在没有医疗监督的情况下摔倒或头部对撞，更难判断是否造成了脑部损伤。

Transferring the technology to humans may take some time. For one thing, the safety of the dye has yet to be proved in people.
将该技术应用于人类可能需要一些时间。因为我们还需要确保染料在人体中的安全性。