Premature babies face a variety of health risks. Some preemies do just fine, but others face major challenges.
早产儿面临各种健康风险。有些早产儿情况不错，但有些就会出现严重的健康问题。
Doctors and nurses who care for these infants don't have any easy way of telling which babies face the biggest risks in their first days and weeks of life.
照料早产儿的医护人员，很难说出哪些在早产儿在他们生命的头几天或几个星期会出现最严重的健康问题。
They want to know, so endangered infants can be transferred to specialty hospitals or get other advanced care.
他们希望能够知道，以便及早将这些处于危险中的婴儿送到专科医院，或接受更先进的治疗。
Stanford University researchers have devised a way of predicting which babies face the biggest challenges. The results are presented as a single number they call the PhysiScore.
斯坦福大学的研究人员研发了一种方法，可以预测哪些婴儿将面临最严重的健康风险。预测结果是一个评分，叫作PhysiScore。
Suchi Saria is the graduate student who led the research project. She says the PhysiScore is the result of a complex formula that combines just a few simple measures, such as heart and breathing rates, and other information from the baby's first hours after birth.
主持这项研究的苏奇·萨利亚是一名研究生。她说，PhysiScore是根据婴儿出生后头几个小时的心率、呼吸频率和其他数据，通过一个复杂的公式计算出来的。
"And this is data collected routinely in the ICU [intensive care unit]," says Saria. "There are no special measurements being made. And we're just taking the data that's already being measured and basically utilizing it to compute the score."
“这些数据都是加护病房里定时收集的数据，不需要靠特别的方法取得。”萨利亚说，“我们基本上就是利用这些现有的数据，计算出一个评分。”
Software to compute the score could be integrated into bedside electronic monitors, which could display the PhysiScore at a glance. And Saria says a study of premature infants at one California hospital indicates it's a lot more accurate at predicting future problems than existing measures, such as one called the Apgar score.
把计算软件接入病床边的电子监视器，健康评分立刻就可以显现出来。萨利亚说，加州一家医院对早产儿的研究显示，这种方法在预测婴儿未来健康问题上，比现在采用的Apgar新生儿评分等方法，更为准确。
"The PhysiScore, using data from the first few hours of life, gets a performance of over 90 percent as compared to Apgar. Apgar gets a performance of 70 percent."
她说，“和Apgar评分方法相比，PhysiScore使用婴儿出生后头几个小时的数据，涵盖范围超过90%，而Apgar的涵盖范围为70%。”
The PhysiScore and the test of its accuracy are described in a paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
According to co-author Anna Penn, the PhysiScore concept isn't limited to evaluating premature babies.
这项研究报告的共同作者安娜·彭说，PhysiScore不仅限于评估早产儿的健康状况。
"We plan to expand the scope of this work to include multiple other patient scenarios: two patients coming out of surgery might have had both uncomplicated surgical courses, but be at very different risk for complications," says Penn. "And it's the same type of thing that could be integrated in multiple settings."
“我们计划扩大它的使用范围，应用到其他病患的的多种状况。例如，两名病人都接受了不复杂的手术，但是出现并发症的风险却大不相同。这种情形也可以通过输入相关数据而计算出来。”
The authors say the PhysiScore is not just for rich countries. Rural hospitals in developing countries, they say, could use monitors that display the PhysiScore as a tool to know when to move babies from a rural clinic to a better-equipped urban hospital.
研究报告的作者说，不仅富裕国家可以使用PhysiScore，发展中国家的乡村医院也可以使用显示PhysiScore的监视器，决定什么时候应该把婴儿从乡村诊所送到设备更完善的城市医院去。 |