iPhone立功，人造胰腺离呼之欲出

    知名医学杂志《新英格兰医学期刊》（New England Journal of Medicine）近日刊发了一篇论文，着重讨论了苹果公司（Apple）新推出的HealthKit平台可能给人类带来的好处，以及还要等多久，这些好处才能成为现实。

    这篇文章介绍了一项针对患有1型糖尿病的20名成年人和32名未成年人进行的试验。试验的新奇之处在于，它利用了一台微型血糖监测仪、两个皮下激素注射泵和一部iPhone来自动控制患者的胰岛素水平。

    这套简单的设备可以模仿人类胰腺的功能，根据需要向人体注射胰岛素或胰增血糖素，将人体的血糖保持在一个正常的范围。据这篇论文显示，在使用了这款试验性设备后，对未成年人低血糖症状的干预由每天的1.6次下降到0.8次，整整下降了一半。

    耶鲁大学糖尿病中心（the Yale Diabetes Center）主任凯万•赫罗德告诉《纽约时报》（the New York Times）：“这个数据解决了糖尿病管理过程中的一些最困难的问题。我想说，它的效果非常显著，值得关注。”

    这款设备由波士顿大学（Boston University）生物机械工程学副教授爱德华•R•达米亚诺研发。达米亚诺15岁的儿子也患有1型糖尿病。他的目标是在2015年让这款设备接受美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）的测试，然后在2017年秋季（也就是他儿子上大学）之前通过FDA认证。

    1型糖尿病是一种先天性的自体免疫性疾病，是糖尿病一种较罕见的形式。据估计，美国患有1型糖尿病的人口可能在2.5万人至5万人以上。另外，随着肥胖人口的不断增加，患有2型糖尿病的人数近年也急剧增多。光是在美国，估计就已超过1700万人。

    据糖尿病杂志《Diabetes Mine》2012年的一篇文章显示，在达米亚诺的设备中，iPhone可以与皮下激素注射泵进行无线连接，向iCloud定期发送报告，而患者的数据则在iCloud中进行处理和管理。

    这款设备的早期版本使用的是现在已下架的苹果iPhone4手机。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    A paper in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine highlights both the potential benefits of Apple’s newly unveiled HealthKit platform and how far off those benefits might still be.

    The report describes an experiment in which 20 adults and 32 adolescents with Type 1 diabetes controlled their insulin levels automatically using a miniature blood sugar monitor, a pair of under-the-skin hormone pumps and an iPhone.

    The jerry-rigged device functioned as a bionic pancreas, injecting insulin or glucagon as needed to keep blood sugar levels within a normal range. According to the report, the number of interventions for hypoglycemia among the adolescents was cut in half, from 1.6 per day for a conventional insulin pump to 0.8 a day with the experimental device.

    “The data address some of the most difficult problems in diabetes management,” Dr. Kevan Herold, director of the Yale Diabetes Center, told the New York Times. “I’d say that the effects are quite significant and noteworthy.”

    The device was developed by Edward R. Damiano, an associate professor of biomechanical engineering at Boston University, whose 15-year-old son has type 1 diabetes. His goal is to begin FDA testing in 2015 and win approval before his son starts college in the fall of 2017.

    Type 1 diabetes, a congenital autoimmune disorder, is the rarer form of diabetes. Estimates of the number of Americans living with it range from 25,000 to over 50,000. But systems like Damiano’s might also be used to treat type 2 diabetes. The incidence of type 2 diabetes has climbed sharply with the rise of obesity and is now estimated to exceed 17 million in the U.S. alone.

    In Damiano’s device, according to a 2012 article in Diabetes Mine, the iPhone communicates wirelessly with the hormone pumps and sends periodic reports to the iCloud, where the patient data is accessed and managed.

    An early version was build using an off-the-shelf iPhone 4.