Study Finds That Time Does Not Mend a Broken Heart

导读:有一句古老的格言说，时间是抚慰心灵创伤的灵丹妙药。但是根据阿伯丁大学医务人员的一项最新研究，事实正相反。

In contrast to the old adage, time does not mend a broken heart, according to a new study by medics at the University of Aberdeen.
有一句古老的格言说，时间是抚慰心灵创伤的灵丹妙药。但是根据阿伯丁大学医务人员的一项最新研究，事实正相反。

Acute stress-induced cardiomyopathy, also known as ‘broken heart syndrome’, a condition triggered by major stress or trauma such as bereavements, accidents or divorce, was previously thought to improve over time as electrical imbalances in the heart stabilized.
急性应激性心肌病，也被称为“心碎综合症”，是由压力过大或心理创伤如亲人去世、事故或离婚引发的。以前人们认为，“心碎综合症”会随着时间推移心脏电失衡改善逐渐稳定得到改善。

However, a new study pioneered by Dr Dana Dawson, a senior lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at Aberdeen University, has found that when researchers followed patients over a period of four months after they experienced the condition, the heart did not heal as spontaneously as they originally thought.
然而，阿伯丁大学心血管内科高级讲师达纳?道森博士的一项最新研究发现，当研究人员跟踪为期4个月后，患者的心脏并没有如他们所想自然愈合。

“The general belief was this condition was recovering itself very rapidly, but this was obviously not the case when we investigated in greater detail,” Dawson said.
“人们普遍认为‘心碎综合症’会很快自愈，但当我们做更细致的研究之后发现，事实显然不是这样，”道森说。

The condition, first identified in Japan in 1990 and which mostly affects women, causes chest pains similar to a heart attack. However, when the patient’s coronary arteries are investigated, whilst the heart muscles appear weakened, no actual blockage is found.
这种病症首次于1990年在日本发现，患者主要是女性，出现胸痛，类似心脏发作。然而，检查患者的冠状动脉时，心肌减弱，心血管没有出现阻塞。

“Although they haven’t had a heart attack, they are still at high risk and in-hospital mortality after they are admitted is similar to a heart attack. Patients can go downhill very quickly and electrical instability in the heart can develop,” says Dawson.
“虽然他们没有心脏病发作，但是他们属于心脏病高发人群，以类似心脏病被医院收治后死亡率很高。患者的病情可能会快速恶化，心电不稳定性可能会发展，”道森说。

“The usual test for heart function is an echocardiogram (Echo) test and when we conduct this it shows that the heart is back to normal,” she continued.
“对于心脏功能通常的测试是一种超声心动图（回音）的测试，当我们做这项测试时心脏已经恢复正常，”她继续说。

According to Dawson, many of the patients they followed continued to feel weak, could not take part in “strenuous activity” and many could not return to work for an extended period of time after experiencing the syndrome. Using sophisticated diagnostic tools such as cardiac magnetic resonance and spectroscopy, the researchers could see that abnormalities continued to occur in the heart.
道森表示，他们跟踪的很多病人还是感觉虚弱，不能参加“剧烈运动”，而且许多人在出现心碎综合症“很长一段时间后还是不能回去工作。研究人员使用先进的诊断工具，如心脏磁共振和光谱，可以看到心脏会持续异常。

“When acute stress induced cardiomyopathy happens, the heart muscle becomes like a sponge when it has absorbed water and it swells significantly. We also observed that the ability of the heart to generate the energy it needs to produce a pumping action was very much reduced.”
“急性应激性心肌病病发时，心肌变得像吸过水的海绵一样明显肿大。我们还观察到心脏收缩产生能量的能力大大降低。”

“Four months on we found that the parts of the heart most affected by the condition were still swollen and the heart energetics had partly improved but were not at normal levels,” she said.
“继续跟踪四个月之后，我们发现，心脏的受‘心碎综合症’影响最严重的部分仍然肿大，心脏供血能力得到部分改善，但并没有恢复到正常水平，”她说。

According to Dawson, the implications of the study are important. “Our findings go some way to providing an explanation as to why patients continue to complain about not feeling right months later despite no apparent problems with their heart,” she says.
道森表示，这项研究意义重大。“我们的研究结果在一定程度上解释了为什么病人在发病几个月后仍然抱怨身体不舒服，尽管他们的心脏没有任何明显问题，”她说。

“We now intend to call them back to see whether these things ever normalise. If they don’t recover fully then it opens up new questions as to whether acute stress induced cardiomyopathy caused this or whether there was something underlying beforehand that made them susceptible to this kind of episode.”
“我们现在打算把这些病人叫回来检查他们是否已经恢复正常。如果他们没有完全康复，那么新的问题来了，是‘心碎综合症’还是他们之前的潜在问题导致没有完全恢复。”

来源:爱语吧爱语吧作者:summer