WASHINGTON — Many patients who have heart disease or who have suffered a stroke don’t take their medications as regularly as prescribed. One study shows that a number of stroke patients stop taking their pills within three months after having a . A new study in Britain finds that if patients with heart disease can take a single pill instead of several pills, they are more likely to stay on their medication.

　　Patients at risk for (1) or (2) may be taking a lot of pills. Some could (3) blood pressure. Other pills could control cholesterol. Still others might be prescribed to prevent a heart attack.

　　Henryk Pycz, who has both high blood pressure and diabetes, participated in a study to see if he could do better in managing his health by reducing the number of pills he had to take.

　　"When I was taking the medication consisting of a variety of tablets, I'd have either five, six or seven tablets to take," he said.

　　Dr. Simon Thom, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at the Imperial College in London, knew it was hard for patients to (4) all those medications.

　　"We know there's a big shortfall in the (5) and continued usage of preventative medication, particularly in lower middle income countries," he said.

　　Dr. Thom led a study that involved more than 2,000 patients. Almost 90 percent of them had suffered a stroke or had heart disease. The other 10 percent had a high risk of having one. Half of the participants received a combination daily medication known as a polypill that contained statins, blood pressure medication and another drug like aspirin to prevent blood clots. The other participants were told to continue taking their regular medications. Dr. Thom says the results clearly (6) the polypill.

　　“More patients at the end of the trial were taking indicated medications in the form of the fixed dose (7) polypill than were in the usual care group,” he said.

　　The patients who took the polypill had improvements in control of both blood pressure and cholesterol. Pycz said he also learned something.

　　"It helped me to understand that controlling your medication is important. The polypill meant that I was never out of sync I always had the correct amount of tablets to take,” he said.

　　Dr. Thom says the study has (8), especially for those who skip their medications.

　　“The polypill has a big public health opportunity to (9) of under usage of indicated and effective therapeutic medication,” he said.

　　Dr. Thom says that's because those who made the biggest gains in taking in taking their medications as prescribed were the ones who were most likely to skip them at the (10).

　　The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

　　听写答案

　　1.heart attack

　　2.stroke

　　3.reduce

　　4.manage

　　5.coverage

　　6.favored

　　7.combination

　　8.huge implications

　　9.bridge the gap

　　10.beginning of the trial

　　词汇解释

　　1.cholesteroln. [生化] 胆固醇

　　Scientists have established a connection between cholesterol levels and heart disease.

　　科学家已证实胆固醇含量与心脏病之间有关联。

　　2.shortfalln. 差额;缺少

　　There will soon be a shortfall in supply of qualified young people.

　　合格年轻人才的短缺将很快出现。

　　3.aspirinn. 阿司匹林(解热镇痛药)

　　She dosed him with non-aspirin tablets to reduce the fever.

　　她让他服用非阿司匹林药片降温退烧。

　　4.implication n. 含义;暗示;牵连，卷入;可能的结果，影响

　　The Attorney General was aware of the political implications of his decision to prosecute.

　　总检察长知道自己起诉的决定可能引起的政治后果。

　　5.therapeuticadj. 治疗的;治疗学的;有益于健康的

　　They hustled Jeanne to accept their therapeutic plan.

　　他们强迫珍妮接受他们的治疗方案。

　　内容解析

　　1.The polypill meant that I was never out of sync I always had the correct amount of tablets to take.

　　out of sync 不同步

　　The film's sound-trackis out of sync with the picture.

　　这部影片的声迹与图像不同步。

　　He is completely out of sync with the current political trends.

　　他和目前的政治潮流完全不一致。

　　2.The polypill has a big public health opportunity to bridge the gap of under usage of indicated and effective therapeutic medication.

　　bridge the gap 缩小差距

　　How can we bridge the gap between rich and poor?

　　怎样才能缩小贫富之间的差距?

　　He made a bid to bridge the gap between he and his father.

　　他为了消除与父亲的代沟而努力。

　　参考译文

　　那些有心脏病或中风风险的病人可能会服用大量的药片，有的药可以降血压，有的可以控制胆固醇，还有的可以用来预防心脏病。

　　Henryk Pycz同时身患高血压和糖尿病，他参加了一项研究，来看看是否可以通过控制所服用药片的数量来达到更好的疗效。

　　“当你服用含有几种药片的药物时，实际上是服用了五、六甚至七片药。”

　　伦敦帝国学院国家心肺研究所的西蒙·托姆博士知道，要病人来管理好这些药物是不容易的。

　　“我们知道在预防性药物的覆盖面和继续使用程度上存在很大缺口，尤其在中低收入国家。”

　　托姆博士负责了一项涉及2000多病人的研究，其中几乎90%的患者患有中风或心脏病，其他10%很有可能患上这些病。一半的参加者得到名为多效药丸的复合日常用药，含有抑制素、血压药和另一种很像阿司匹林的用于预防血液阻塞的药物。其他的参加者被告知继续服用常规的药物。托姆博士说结果明显表明多效药丸更好。

　　“在试验的最后阶段，与常规用药的小组相比，那些服用多效药丸小组的病人有更多人根据医嘱服药。”

　　那些服用多效药丸的病人在控制血压和胆固醇方面都有改善，Pycz说自己学到一些东西。

　　“这次试验让我明白，控制自己的用药很重要。多效药丸意味着永远不会出错，总能服用正确的药量。”

　　托姆博士说这项研究有着重大意义，尤其对于那些错过用药的病人来说。

　　“多效药丸带来了巨大的公共卫生机会，来弥合用药不足和有效使用治疗性药物的缺口。”

　　托姆博士说，这是因为，那些遵照医嘱服药并得到最大疗效的病人最可能在试验的开始阶段就忽略服药。

　　这项研究发表在杂志《美国医药协会》上。