New iPhone App Improves the Chance of Survival for Heart Attack Victims

 

New iPhone App Improves the Chance of Survival for Heart Attack Victims

From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.

Researchers have developed an experimental iPhone application, or app, they can improve the chances of survival for heart attack victims.

The iPhone app is specially¹ designed to identify patients suffering from a heart attack known as STEMI, or ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

In STEMI, blood flow to the heart is stopped because of a blockage² in a coronary artery³.  Unlike other kinds of heart attacks, STEMIs show up very clearly on an electrocardiogram, or ECG.  Doctors use such tests to measures a electrical activity in the heart. 

The experimental iPhone app, should be a great help to healthcare technicians reacting to a possible medical emergency. They can perform an ECG, and then take a picture of the tests results with the camera on the telephone. They can then send that information ahead to hospital emergency-room doctors.

The iPhone App is the work of David Burt and his students at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He says the app can help save lives by preparing doctors for the arrival of the STEMI patient.

"So a decision made as early as possible in the STEMI treatment process allows the system to ramp⁴ up or mobilize so that when the patient shows up, they are pushed into the "cath" [catheterization] lab, everything happens and their [coronary] artery gets opened [unblocked]."

David Burt and his team tested the app 1,500 times over three American cellular⁵ phone networks in an populated area.

"If your iPhone at the time that you hit 'send' shows two or more bars, the app is successful in sending an image 94-plus percent of the time in less than 10 seconds."

The developers are now testing the iPhone app in rural areas, where cell phone reception is more problematic than in cities.

In a separate story, a farmer in China who lost his hands in a fishing accident has turned his tragedy into a family business. His company now sells bionic arms to other amputees.

Sun Jifa of Jilin province lost his hands nearly ten years ago. His own  bionic arms was the first one he built. He says it transfers the power from the natural movement of his elbows into the finger allowing it to grab and hold. He turns his work into a home based business.

Sun Jifa says he has sold about 1000 steel limbs at a cost of $490 each. He says they are less costly⁶ and just as effective as higher quality prosthesis.

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report. I'm June Simms.

1 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

2 blockage   

n.障碍物；封锁

参考例句：

• The logical treatment is to remove this blockage.合理的治疗方法就是清除堵塞物。
• If the blockage worked,they could retreat with dignity.如果封锁发生作用，他们可以体面地撤退。

3 artery   

n.干线，要道；动脉

参考例句：

• We couldn't feel the changes in the blood pressure within the artery.我们无法感觉到动脉血管内血压的变化。
• The aorta is the largest artery in the body.主动脉是人体中的最大动脉。

4 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

5 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。