坚持才会提高 | 医学英语精听：咖啡因能有效治疗早产儿的呼吸问题

小白老师说：请先阅读News Background，然后点击下方条形框播放音频。

News Background

早在30多年前，临床医生们就发现甲基黄嘌呤类生物碱能够降低早产儿呼吸暂停的发生率。从那时起，甲基黄嘌呤类生物碱就成了早产儿呼吸暂停常规临床治疗的一个部分。由于该类药物中的咖啡因在婴儿体内的半衰期较长，所以在临床治疗中最常用到。

《新英格兰医学》杂志已发表过一项研究，施密特等人报告了这项临床研究的长期随访结果，发现随机分配接受咖啡因治疗的婴儿月龄为18 ~21个月时，存活率得到改善，而且不伴有神经系统发育异常，这也是该研究的主要观察结果。而且，咖啡因组与安慰剂治疗组的婴儿相比，小儿脑瘫和认知滞后的发生率降低，死亡、耳聋以及失明的发生率在两组之间没有显著差异。

News Transcri****pt

Almost all babies who are born veryprematurely have trouble breathing. For decades, doctors have treated themwith the stimulant （兴奋剂） caffeine, even though there was little scientific evidence to **justify（**证明合法） it. Now research confirms caffeine is a sage and effective treatment.

In an earlier stage of this study, some2,000 premature babies in nine countries were randomly assigned to get caffeineor a placebo. At 18 months, researchers found numerous advantages for thecaffeine group. Those babies had half as many cases of **cerebral palsy（**脑瘫） as well as lower rates ofblindness, deafness and delayed mental functioning （****心理功能）.

Now, researcher Barbara Schmidt of the University of Pennsylvania and college report on anadditional three and a half years of follow-up, mainly to look for possiblesafety issues, which might take time to develop.

She says the new study confirms theeffectiveness of the caffeine treatment, and underscores its lack of sideeffects.

“Not only is it safe, it is more effectivethan any other drugs we give to babies in the **nursery （**育儿箱） when they are very preterm（****早产的）.”

Schmidt’s research paper, that rates of **cognitive （**认知的） **impairment （**损伤，损害） atfive years were much lower than at 18 months—what she calls a potential for “remarkablecatch-up” in the very premature babies as they get older, whether they getcaffeine therapy or not. Barbara Schmidt research is published in the Journalof American Medical Association JAMA.

小白老师说：

Fordecades, doctors have treated them with the stimulant(兴奋剂) caffeine, even though there waslittle scientific evidence to justify（证明合法） it.

此句中，播音员将单词caffeine进行了重读，表明这是本句的重要信息，与咖啡因有关。另外，even though“尽管”，表示转折，even though引导让步状语从句是以从句的内容为先决条件的，即说话人肯定了从句的事实，表示已经发生了的事，在听力过程中要注意把握这一信息。