现在，一些老年性疾病正出现在肥胖的年轻人中。
马里兰大学医学中心放射科，位于马里兰州巴尔的摩市，根据他们进行的一项研究：急性憩室炎是一种过去在50岁以上老年人中常见的疾病，现在却出现在年轻的肥胖成人中。
急性憩室炎是一种最常见的结肠急性疾病之一，常常与低纤维饮食有关。结肠内压增加使结肠壁出现薄壁憩室，一种称为憩室病的慢性病理状态。憩室细菌感染引起炎症，并可能在肠壁内引起穿孔和其他严重并发症。
“在过去10年间，我注意到许多来急诊室的患者，CT表现为急性憩室炎，它们看起来比传统教科书所说的要年轻，而且常是肥胖者，”该研究的作者Barry Daly博士说：“虽然教科书上说它是50岁以上人群特有的疾病，但我们遇到的是才二十出头的年轻患者。”他说。
研究组包括104例患者，男女均被分入两个年龄组：小于等于50岁和大于50岁。在小于等于50岁年龄组中存在腹部肥胖而且很严重有85.7％，相比之下老年组患者为77％。
“这些年轻患者腹部肥胖明显同该病有关。肥胖的成年患者在20岁后易于患病，”Daly博士说：“因为患急性憩室炎的患者常常潜在的结肠憩室病，对年轻患者来说，时间越长其憩室炎复发的危险就越大。”他说。
当遇到因急性腹痛来急诊的较年轻患者，内科医生也要把急性憩室炎的诊断考虑在内，这点很重要。放射科医生在给这些病人做CT扫描时也要虑及这种可能性。
这项研究发表在2006年9月AJR（美国放射学杂志）上。
Disease of older adults now seen in young, obese adults
Acute diverticulitis, a disease traditionally seen in patients older than 50 years old, is now being seen in younger adults who are obese, according to a study conducted by the University of Maryland Medical Center's department of radiology in Baltimore, MD.
Acute diverticulitis is one of the most frequently encountered acute diseases of the colon and is commonly related to a low fiber diet. Increased pressure in the colon causes numerous thin-walled out-pouches (diverticula) to develop in the bowel wall, a chronic condition known as diverticulosis. Bacterial infection of these diverticula cause inflammation that may lead to a perforation in the wall of the intestine and other serious complications.
"Over the last ten years, I noted that many patients coming into the emergency room with CT findings of acute diverticulitis seemed younger than traditional teaching suggested, and often were obese," said Barry Daly, MD, an author of the study. "We were seeing patients as young as their early twenties, though textbooks typically describe this condition as a disease of the over-fifty age group," he said.
The study group was composed of 104 patients, both men and women, broken into two age groups: 50 years old or younger and older than 50 years. Abdominal obesity was present and more severe in 85.7% of the 50 years or younger group compared with 77% of the older patients.
"There is clearly an association with abdominal obesity in these younger patients. Obese adult patients are at risk for this disease after twenty years of age," said Dr. Daly. "Because patients who get acute diverticulitis always have underlying diverticulosis of the colon, younger patients may be at increased risk for recurrent attacks of inflammation of these diverticula over the long term," he said.
"For physicians it is important to add acute diverticulitis to the list of diseases that may cause acute abdominal pain in younger patients who come to the emergency room, especially if they are obese. Radiologists should be aware of this possibility when evaluating CT scans of these patients," said Dr. Daly.
This study appears in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
编辑：蓝色幻想
