離開
進入《中英對照讀新聞》Viagra may help children with rare lung disease 威而鋼或能治療罹患罕見肺病的兒童
◎ 陳成良
Children suffering from a rare and fatal lung disease were able to walk farther and breathe more easily after taking the impotence pill Viagra, a small study suggests.
罹患一種罕見且致命肺疾的兒童，服用壯陽藥威而鋼後，能走得更遠、且呼吸更加順暢，一項小規模研究顯示。
Researchers say the use of the drug to treat children suffering from pulmonary hypertension needs more study. But they called these early results promising.
研究人員表示，要用這種藥治療患有原發性高血壓的兒童，還需進行更多研究。但他們稱初步結果頗有展望。
The Food and Drug Administration had approved the use of the main ingredient in Viagra to treat adults with pulmonary hypertension.
美國食品藥物管理局已核准使用威而鋼的主要成分來治療罹患原發性高血壓的成人。
The disease, which has no cure, causes continuous high blood pressure in the artery that carries blood from the heart to small vessels in the lungs. The vessels narrow, leaving less room for blood to flow. The heart can't keep up if the pressure gets too high, and patients suffer from fatigue, shortness of breath, and eventually heart failure and death.
這種無藥可醫的疾病，會導致負責將肺部中血液輸送到小血管的動脈產生持續性的高血壓，使得血管縮小，血液流通的空間變小。如果血壓變得過高，會讓心臟無法負荷，患者會感到疲累、呼吸短促，最後會心臟衰竭而死亡。
If untreated, children usually die within a year. And even with treatment, few patients live five years past diagnosis。
如果沒接受治療，（罹患該病的）兒童通常一年內便會死亡，即使接受治療，很少有患者能在診斷後存活五年。
新聞辭典
suffer：動詞，罹患（某種）疾病、受損失、受苦。當不及物動詞時通常後接 from。例句：He suffered from poverty all his life.（他一生受貧窮之苦。）
impotence pill：壯陽藥，治療性無能的藥。impotence在醫學上指的是「陽痿」。
hypertension：醫學名詞，高血壓（同high blood pressure）。字根 hyper- 表示「超過，極度」，如hypersonic（超音波）。
diagnosis：診斷；診斷結果。例句：The two doctors made different diagnoses of my disease.（兩位醫生對我的病做出不同的診斷。）
