能拍摄血管内部的微型摄像头（在线收听）

 能拍摄血管内部的微型摄像头

Ahead of any surgical procedure, doctors try to learn as much as possible about the state of the organs they plan to operate on. A new camera developed in the Netherlands can now make that easier - giving surgeons an incredibly detailed look inside blood vessels, all the way to the patient’s heart.

Blockages in coronary arteries, caused by the buildup of plaque, are the main cause of heart attacks. In most cases, doctors treat the problem by widening the artery with a mechanical device called a stent, inserted at the end of a long thin wire-like catheter.

动脉斑块积聚导致冠状动脉堵塞，这是导致心脏病的主要原因。在大多数情况下，医生的治疗方法是用名叫血管内支架的医疗设备来扩大动脉，这个支架插在像电线那么细的长导管末端。

But within a year, about 10 percent of patients have to return for another procedure, says cardiologist Evelyn Reger.

但心脏病学家伊芙琳·瑞格尔说，一年内约有10%的患者将必须进行另一个程序。

“Roughly half of the patients have to come back because we did not do an excellent job in the blockage that is causing the heart attack, and the other half of the patients have to come back because we overlook additional lesions, problems that are present in the artery," she said.

“大约有一半的患者必须回来，因为我们在治疗导致心脏病的堵塞方面做得不够好，另一半患者必须回来是因为我们要检查动脉中出现的额外损害。”

This situation could improve considerably with a new camera that provides a clearer, more detailed view from inside arteries, developed at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

荷兰鹿特丹伊拉斯谟医学中心开发了一种能更清晰、更详细看到动脉内部情况的新型摄像机，有了它，这一现状能够在很大程度上得到改善。

Currently, to take different images through the catheter, surgeons control the rotation of the catheter's camera from outside the body. The new camera has its own tiny electrical motor.

目前，要通过导管获得不同的图像，外科医生会控制身体外部控制导管摄像头的旋转。而新型摄像头有自己的微型马达。

Professor Ton van der Steen is the head of Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Erasmus Medical Center.

Ton van der Steen教授是伊拉斯谟医学中心生物医学工程系主任。

“With this system you have rotation where exactly needs to be, only in the tip. So you have a micro-motor in the tip that can rotate and that's why it can rotate so fast and so accurately," said van der Steen.

“有了这个系统，就可以在顶端进行旋转，所以在尖端有了可以旋转的微型马达，这样摄像头就可以转动得很快、很精确。”

Researchers are still experimenting on lab animals, but the results are stunning.

研究者仍在拿实验室动物做试验，但结果令人震惊。

While catheter cameras now in use take only about 100 images per second, too slow not to be distorted by the movement of the heart, the new camera can take 2,500 images in-between two heartbeats.

现在使用的导管摄像头每秒只能拍摄100张图片，这就太慢了，会因为心脏的跳动而变形，而新型摄像头却能在两次心跳之间拍摄2500张图像。

Its one millimeter-thick motor rotates a mirror 5600 times per second, while a fast-pulsing laser lights up the environment, allowing the camera to take sharp pictures of the artery wall.

这个一毫米厚的马达能每秒转动摄像头5600次，同时快速脉冲激光照亮周围环境，这样摄像机就能清晰地拍下动脉壁。

“Suddenly we get a view on a blood vessel like we just know from the text book. And we can see that in our living patients at the very moment when we have to do the operation," said Reger.

“突然我们就能看到血管的样子，就像在教科书上看到的那样，我们就能在做手术时看到活生生的患者体内的血管。”

Scientists say they are now trying to build an even smaller motor, only half a millimeter thick.

科学家称他们现在尝试制造更小的马达，只有半毫米厚。

The new catheter camera was presented at the Optics in Cardiology symposium in Rotterdam on March 11, but researchers say it will take up to three years before they start with trials on humans.

这款新型导管摄像头在3月11日鹿特丹心脏病学光学研讨会上被推出，但研究者称还需要三年时间才能在人身上做试验。