People with liver(肝)failure may in future recover by being attached to dialysis(透析)equipment to clean their blood of poisonous substances. The idea is similar to kidney dialysis, when people with kidney failure regularly go to a clinic or hospital to have their blood cleaned. Now, a new technique has shown promise in a small clinical trial, where it boosted the recovery process for people with liver failure.
Liver failure can be triggered by infections, drug overdoses, or drinking too much alcohol. One of the liver's main functions is to remove harmful elements from the blood. In severe liver failure, there is a huge build-up of poisons, which can cause damage to other organs and death.
Many poisonous substances from food and drink are transported in the blood. Initial attempts to replace the liver's function have involved simple forms of dialysis, where the blood is passed through a filter containing clean albumin(白蛋白).
This treatment is on offer in certain hospitals globally, but some trials have failed to show it provides benefit. The problem is that people with liver failure make too little albumin and what they do make doesn't function properly, says Agarwal, a doctor from the Royal Free Hospital in London. "Whatever albumin is being produced is of low quality." So Agarwal and his colleagues developed a different approach, removing the poisonous albumin from the individual's blood and replacing it with an adding of fresh albumin.
The technique was tested in 30 people in intensive care with severe liver failure caused by an outburst of alcoholic cirrhosis. Half the group had three to five dialysis sessions, while the rest received conventional care. Ten out of the 15 people who got dialysis recovered after 10 days, compared with five out of the 15 who got the conventional care. The results were presented at the International Liver Congress, which was held virtually at the end of June.
The work is at an early stage, but the results are promising. "We are really desperate to find something to bridge to transplantation." says Tobias Bottler at the University of Freiburg, Germany, who wasn't involved in the trial.
12. What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 1 refer to?
A.The small trial | B.The new technique. |
C.The dialysis equipment. | D.The poisonous substance |
13. What can we learn from the passage?
A.Traditional care is more effective than dialysis in treating liver failure. |
B.Dialysis treatment is available in hospitals with its all trials successful. |
C.It's hard for people with liver failure to make much high-quality albumin |
D.Many poisonous substances from food and air are transported in the blood. |
14. What's the attitude of the author towards liver dialysis?
A.Indifferent. | B.Negative. |
C.Positive | D.Suspicious. |
15. What can be the best title for the text?
A.Liver Dialysis Is One Step Closer |
B.Approaches to Curing Liver Cancer |
C.Attempts to Restore the Liver's Function |
D.Liver Dialysis Replaces Transplantation |