Department of Pediatrics, The University of Texas Medical Branch, , Galveston, Texas, 77550, USA.
J Perinatol. 2018 Dec;38(12):1602-1606. doi: 10.1038/s41372-018-0237-1. Epub 2018 Oct 5.
Hyaline membrane disease (HMD) offers an illustration of a disease discovered during the lifetime of William Osler and effectively treated in the twentieth century-the perspective that suggests that there was a straightforward progressive identification of the disease process, a discovery of the underlying biochemical agent responsible for the pathophysiology, and the pharmacological refinement of that agent to be used to treat the disease is illusory. By reviewing the timeline from the earliest pathological description of what was to be later termed HMD to the discovery of surfactant and its impact on infant mortality, this narrative will demonstrate how various random historical events served to affect the progress of developing a treatment for HMD; how the marked reduction in deaths due to HMD may have set the stage for unrealistic expectations; and how the humanities have warned us of the potential for excessive optimism in our understanding of nature.
玻璃膜病（HMD）提供了一个例证，说明在威廉·奥斯勒（William Osler）有生之年发现的一种疾病，并在 20 世纪得到有效治疗——这种观点表明，疾病过程的识别是直接而渐进的，对负责病理生理学的潜在生化剂的发现，以及对该剂的药理学改进，被用来治疗疾病，这是虚幻的。通过回顾从最早的病理学描述（后来被称为 HMD）到表面活性剂的发现及其对婴儿死亡率的影响的时间线，本叙述将展示各种随机的历史事件如何影响开发 HMD 治疗方法的进展；HMD 导致的死亡人数显著减少如何为不切实际的期望奠定了基础；以及人文科学如何警告我们，在我们对自然的理解中，可能存在过度乐观的潜在风险。
