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15分鐘的大腦掃描“能夠診斷自閉癥”譯者： newkiwi 原作者：Alok Jha 發(fā)表時(shí)間：2010-08-11
研究顯示對(duì)患有泛自閉癥障礙（ASD）的成年男性進(jìn)行檢測(cè)的成功率已能達(dá)到90%，同時(shí)研究人員希望這項(xiàng)簡(jiǎn)易的技術(shù)能夠盡快用于識(shí)別具有自閉癥傾向的兒童。
供圖：《時(shí)代周刊》雜志（Time Magazine） Study shows 90% success rate in detecting adult males with ASD, and researches hope the simple technique will rapidly identify children at risk 研究顯示對(duì)患有泛自閉癥障礙（ASD）的成年男性進(jìn)行檢測(cè)的成功率已能達(dá)到90%，同時(shí)研究人員希望這項(xiàng)簡(jiǎn)易的技術(shù)能夠盡快用于識(shí)別具有自閉癥傾向的兒童。 A simple 15-minute brain scan could help doctors diagnose people with autism by identifying structural differences in their brains. Scientists say the scans would speed up what is currently a long and emotional diagnostic procedure and allow the identification of at-risk children more rapidly. 15分鐘的簡(jiǎn)便大腦掃描，通過(guò)識(shí)別人們大腦的結(jié)構(gòu)差異，可能能夠幫助醫(yī)生診斷自閉癥患者?？茖W(xué)家稱，目前用于診斷自閉癥的情緒診斷程序耗時(shí)較長(zhǎng)，大腦掃描將能夠快速地進(jìn)行診斷，并且使得醫(yī)生能夠更為快速地識(shí)別出具有自閉癥傾向的兒童。 "We know already that people with autism have differences in brain anatomy and some regions are just bigger and smaller or just different in shape," said Christine Ecker of King's College Institute of Psychiatry in London. "Our technique can use this information to identify someone with autism." “我們已經(jīng)知道，自閉癥患者在大腦解剖結(jié)構(gòu)上與一般人存在差異，一些大腦腦區(qū)要么大一點(diǎn)要么小一點(diǎn)，或者在形狀上存在差異，”英國(guó)倫敦國(guó)王學(xué)院精神病學(xué)研究所（King's College Institute of Psychiatry）的克莉斯汀·艾克爾（Christine Ecker）說(shuō)?！拔覀兊募夹g(shù)能夠通過(guò)這些差異信息來(lái)識(shí)別自閉癥患者?！?/font> Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition caused by abnormalities in the development of the brain that affects around half a million people in the UK. The vast majority of these are male, and diagnosis usually involves a lengthy process of interviews and personal accounts from family and friends close to the patient. 泛自閉癥障礙（ASD）是大腦發(fā)育異常造成的一種終生的癥狀，這種癥狀大約影響著英國(guó)50萬(wàn)人的生活。絕大部分自閉癥患者是男性，目前的診斷通常包含一個(gè)漫長(zhǎng)的面談過(guò)程，以及來(lái)自與患者關(guān)系親密的家人朋友的個(gè)人描述。 Medical researchers at the IoP compared the brain scans of 20 adults with autism against those of 20 adults without. They found significant differences in the thickness of tissue in parts of the grey matter in areas of the frontal and parietal lobes which are responsible for functions including behaviour and language. 國(guó)王學(xué)院精神病學(xué)研究所的醫(yī)學(xué)研究人員對(duì)20名成人自閉癥患者的大腦掃描結(jié)果與20名正常成人的大腦掃描結(jié)果進(jìn)行比較。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)在大腦額葉與頂葉區(qū)域的灰質(zhì)部分，兩組人群該組織的厚度存在顯著差異，大腦額葉與頂葉區(qū)域負(fù)責(zé)包括行為與語(yǔ)言在內(nèi)的功能。 In the experiment, Ecker showed that her imaging technique was able to detect which people in her group had autism, with 90% accuracy. "If we get a new case, we will also hopefully be 90% accurate," she said. The research, supported by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research, is published today in the Journal of Neuroscience. 在這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)中，艾克爾表明，她的成像技術(shù)能夠以高達(dá)90%的準(zhǔn)確率檢測(cè)出參與她實(shí)驗(yàn)的人中哪些人患有自閉癥?！叭绻o我們一個(gè)新的病例，我們也非常有希望達(dá)到90%的準(zhǔn)確率，”她說(shuō)。這項(xiàng)研究由英國(guó)醫(yī)學(xué)研究委員會(huì)（MRC）、維康信托基金會(huì)（Wellcome Trust）與英國(guó)國(guó)家健康研究所（National Institute for Health Research）資助，研究報(bào)告于昨天發(fā)表在《神經(jīng)科學(xué)雜志》（Journal of Neuroscience）上。 Declan Murphy, professor of psychiatry and brain maturation at the IoP said the new method would help people with ASD to be diagnosed more quickly and cost effectively. "Most importantly, their diagnosis will be based on an objective "biomarker" and not simply on the opinion of a clinician, which is formed after an interview. Simply being diagnosed means patients can take the next steps to get help and improve their quality of life." 國(guó)王學(xué)院精神病學(xué)研究所精神病學(xué)與大腦成熟專業(yè)教授德克蘭·墨菲（Declan Murphy）說(shuō)，這項(xiàng)新方法將幫助泛自閉癥障礙患者更快速更實(shí)惠地得到診斷?！白钪匾氖?，他們得到的診斷將基于一種客觀的‘生物指標(biāo)’，而不是簡(jiǎn)單地基于面談后臨床醫(yī)生形成的個(gè)人意見。通過(guò)大腦掃描進(jìn)行簡(jiǎn)便的診斷，意味著患者能夠盡早地去尋求幫助，并提高他們的生活質(zhì)量?！?/font> Uta Frith, emeritus professor of cognitive development at University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: "This study shows that the subtle brain abnormalities associated with autism show a distinctive pattern. However, it will need many more studies before the technique used in this study can be used for diagnosis. It is crucial that we learn more about what the brain abnormalities mean. The authors in the paper itself say their results are preliminary and serve as 'proof of concept' rather than a definitive means of diagnosis." 英國(guó)倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院（UCL）認(rèn)知神經(jīng)研究所（Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience）認(rèn)知發(fā)展專業(yè)榮譽(yù)教授弗里斯（Uta Frith）說(shuō)：“這項(xiàng)研究表明，與自閉癥相關(guān)的細(xì)微的大腦異常顯現(xiàn)出了一種獨(dú)特的模式。不過(guò)，在這項(xiàng)研究采用的技術(shù)能夠被用于臨床診斷之前，還需要進(jìn)行更多的研究。重要的是，對(duì)于大腦異常意味著什么，通過(guò)這項(xiàng)研究我們了解的更多了。這篇論文的作者自己也說(shuō)，他們的結(jié)論還只是初步的，起到的是‘概念驗(yàn)證’的作用，而不是診斷的確切方法?！?/font> Ecker found there was a correlation between the severity of a person's autism and the amount of structural difference observed in their brain scans, compared with the control group. "We can see that, on the basis of the brain scan, some brains are simply located quite far away from the 'control' brain, whereas some are more like the controls, so the autism wouldn't be that severe." 艾克爾發(fā)現(xiàn)，與正?？刂平M相比，一個(gè)人自閉癥癥狀的嚴(yán)重程度與大腦掃描中觀察到的結(jié)構(gòu)差異的多少存在相關(guān)性。“我們能夠看到，在大腦掃描的基礎(chǔ)上，一些大腦與正?？刂平M的大腦相比相差很大，而有些大腦又與正常控制組的大腦很接近，所以這些比較接近正常人大腦的患者，他們的自閉癥癥狀將不會(huì)那么嚴(yán)重?！?/font> The IoP team scanned the brains of 20 healthy men and 20 men with ASD, aged between 20 and 68 years. The men with ASD had already been diagnosed by traditional methods, which includes IQ tests, a psychiatric interview, physical examinations and a blood test. Once all the brains had been imaged using a standard clinical MRI scanner, the pictures were analysed for differences using a technique called pattern classification, which is widely used in facial recognition technology but has not, until now, been used on brain scans. 國(guó)王學(xué)院精神病學(xué)研究所的研究團(tuán)隊(duì)分別對(duì)20名健康男性與20名患有泛自閉癥障礙的男性的大腦進(jìn)行掃描，他們的年齡在20歲到68歲之間?；加蟹鹤蚤]癥障礙的男性已經(jīng)經(jīng)由傳統(tǒng)的方法進(jìn)行診斷了，診斷中包括智商（IQ）測(cè)驗(yàn)、一項(xiàng)精神科訪談、體格檢查以及血液化驗(yàn)。一旦所有人的大腦通過(guò)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的臨床磁共振（MRI）掃描儀進(jìn)行成像后，將采用一種稱為模式分類的技術(shù)對(duì)大腦圖像的差異進(jìn)行分析。這種技術(shù)被廣泛用于面孔識(shí)別領(lǐng)域，直到這項(xiàng)研究才被用于分析大腦掃描圖像。 So far, Ecker's team has only looked at men but there are plans to extend the work to women and children. "We think this approach will work even better with kids because the brain abnormalities you see in autism develop over the life span and they're most prominent during childhood," she said. "If we can get up to 90% accuracy in adults, we think it'll be even better in kids." 目前，艾克爾的研究團(tuán)隊(duì)還僅僅只考察了男性，不過(guò)他們也已經(jīng)計(jì)劃將他們的研究擴(kuò)展到女性與兒童身上。“我們認(rèn)為這種方法在兒童身上的效果甚至?xí)?，因?yàn)槟阍谝驯辉\斷為自閉癥的患者大腦中看到的異常，已經(jīng)經(jīng)過(guò)了多年的發(fā)展與彌補(bǔ)，而在兒童時(shí)期這種差異是最顯著的，”她說(shuō)?！叭绻覀兡軌蛟诔扇松砩汐@得高達(dá)90%的準(zhǔn)確率，那么我們認(rèn)為在兒童身上的準(zhǔn)確率將會(huì)更高?！?/font> Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society's Centre for Autism, said the study gave a valuable insight into the way people with autism process and understand the world around them. "Eventually, the researchers hope that brain scans might also be a useful diagnostic tool. While further testing is still required, any tools which could help identify autism at an earlier stage, have the potential to improve a person's quality of life by allowing the right support to be put in place as soon as possible." 英國(guó)國(guó)家自閉癥學(xué)會(huì)（National Autistic Society）自閉癥中心（Centre for Autism）主任卡羅爾·波維（Carol Povey）說(shuō)，這項(xiàng)研究為深入了解自閉癥患者如何加工與理解他們周圍的世界提供了極有價(jià)值的信息?！白詈?，研究人員還希望大腦掃描的方法成為一種有用的診斷工具。雖然仍然還需要進(jìn)行更深入的研究，不過(guò)任何能夠幫助在更早的年齡段識(shí)別自閉癥的工具，都將具有提高一個(gè)人生活質(zhì)量的潛力，只要合適的支持能盡快到位。” She added: "However, diagnosis is only the first step. At the National Autistic Society, we frequently receive calls from people who have struggled to get support, leaving them anxious, frustrated and in some cases depressed or even suicidal. Research that improves our understanding of autism, is therefore part of a wider struggle to enable people with autism to access appropriate support at every stage of their life." 她說(shuō)：“然而，診斷僅僅只是第一步。在國(guó)家自閉癥學(xué)會(huì)，我們頻繁地接到民眾的電話，他們掙扎著希望得到支持，但他們得到的只是焦慮與挫敗感，還有一些人最終十分抑郁或者甚至自殺。所以能夠提高我們對(duì)自閉癥的認(rèn)識(shí)的研究，也是為了讓自閉癥患者能夠在他們生命的每個(gè)階段獲得適當(dāng)支持的廣泛努力中的一部分?！?/font>
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來(lái)自： 蕙籣留香 > 《醫(yī)學(xué)評(píng)論》
