Researchers recently reported new evidence from a study of a medical device placed inside the body, a spine-stimulating implant. 研究人员最近报道了一项对放置在体内的医疗装置的研究的新证据，这是一种刺激脊柱的植入物。 Three people with a muscle-destroying disease got a little stronger after using the implant. They were able to stand and walk more easily because of electrical stimulation to their spinal cord. 使用植入物后，三个患有肌肉疾病的人会变得更强大。 由于对脊髓的电刺激，他们能够更容易站立和走路。
Researchers recently reported new evidence from a study of a medical device placed inside the body, a spine-stimulating implant.
研究人员最近报道了一项对放置在体内的医疗装置的研究的新证据，这是一种刺激脊柱的植入物。
Three people with a muscle-destroying disease got a little stronger after using the implant. They were able to stand and walk more easily because of electrical stimulation to their spinal cord.
使用植入物后，三个患有肌肉疾病的人会变得更强大。 由于对脊髓的电刺激，他们能够更容易站立和走路。
Marco Capogrosso is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburg, or Pitt, who led the research. "These people were definitely not expecting an improvement," he said. Capogrosso said, "They were getting better and better," over the study that lasted one month.
Marco Capogrosso是匹兹堡大学或皮特大学的助理教授，他领导了这项研究。 他说：“这些人绝对不会期望有所改善。” Capogrosso说：“他们越来越好，”持续一个月的研究。
The implant was able to return some muscle function, at least temporarily. The implant was already being tested to treat paralysis in other patients. This new evidence suggests it might also aid diseases of the nervous system like spinal muscle atrophy, or SMA.
植入物至少能够暂时恢复某些肌肉功能。 该植入物已经被测试以治疗其他患者的麻痹。 该新证据表明，它也可能有助于神经系统（如脊柱肌肉萎缩或SMA）的疾病。
SMA is a genetic disease that slowly destroys motor neurons, nerve cells in the spinal cord that control muscles. That leads muscles to waste away, especially in the legs, hips, and shoulders and sometimes those involved with breathing and swallowing. There is no cure. A gene therapy can save the lives of very young children with a severe form of the disease, and there are some medicines to slow the disease in older patients.
SMA是一种遗传疾病，慢慢破坏了控制肌肉的脊髓中的运动神经元，神经细胞。 这会导致肌肉浪费，尤其是在腿部，臀部和肩膀上，有时甚至是呼吸和吞咽的肌肉。 无法治愈。 基因疗法可以挽救患有严重形式疾病的非常小儿童的生命，并且有一些药物可以减慢老年患者的疾病。
Stimulating the spinal cord with low levels of electricity has long been used to treat chronic, or long-term, pain. Capogrosso's team also has tested it to help people paralyzed by strokes or spinal cord injury move their arms and legs with assistance. The system sends electrical signals to nerves that have stopped reacting. This has the effect of activating the muscles.
长期以来，用低水平的电刺激脊髓来治疗慢性或长期疼痛。 Capogrosso的团队还对其进行了测试，以帮助瘫痪或脊髓损伤瘫痪的人们在帮助的情况下移动手臂和腿部。 该系统将电信号发送到停止反应的神经。 这具有激活肌肉的作用。
Capogrosso wondered if that same technology might help patients with SMA by stimulating sensory nerves to signal damaged muscle cells causing them to move. The researchers at the University of Pittsburgh published their study in Nature Medicine.
Capogrosso想知道，同一技术是否可以通过刺激感觉神经来帮助肌肉细胞发出导致其移动的肌肉细胞来帮助患有SMA的患者。 匹兹堡大学的研究人员发表了他们的自然医学研究。
They implanted electrodes over the lower spinal cord of the three adults with SMA. Using the device did not return normal movement but with a few hours of spinal stimulation a week, all soon experienced improvements in muscle strength and function, the researchers wrote.
他们将电极植入了三个成年人的下脊髓上。 研究人员写道，使用该设备没有返回正常运动，而是每周进行几个小时的脊柱刺激，所有这些都很快就会改善肌肉力量和功能。
Fifty-seven-year-old Doug McCullough took part in the study. "With a progressive disease you never get any better," he said, adding, “So having any improvement is just a really surreal and very exciting benefit."
57岁的道格·麦卡洛（Doug McCullough）参加了这项研究。 他说：“有了进步性疾病，您永远不会变得更好，因此，任何改进只是一个非常超现实和非常令人兴奋的好处。”
All three subjects increased how far they could walk in six minutes by the study's end.
所有三个受试者都增加了他们在研究结束时可以在六分钟内步行多远。
Capogrosso said they could walk farther because they got less tired and “even a person this many years into the disease can improve."
Capogrosso说，他们可以走得更远，因为他们的疲倦减少了，“即使是多年来疾病的人也可以改善”。
Researchers found the improvements did not disappear as soon as the stimulator was turned off. But they did decrease a few months after the study ended.
研究人员发现，一旦关闭刺激器，这些改进就不会消失。 但是在研究结束几个月后，他们确实减少了。
Neuroscientist Susan Harkema led similar studies of stimulation for spinal cord injuries while at the University of Louisville. She warned that the new study is small and did not last very long but said it was an important test of the device. She said it should be tested next with other muscle-degenerating diseases.
神经科学家苏珊·哈克玛（Susan Harkema）在路易斯维尔大学（University of Louisville）进行了类似的对脊髓损伤刺激的研究。 她警告说，这项新研究很小，持续很长时间，但表示这是对该设备的重要测试。 她说，接下来应该对其他肌肉脱生疾病进行测试。
Capogrosso said some small but longer studies are beginning.
Capogrosso说，一些很小但更长的研究开始了。
