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BackgroundImplementing effective interventions remain a lot of difficulties along all border regions. The emergence of artemisinin resistance of Plasmodium falciparum strains in the Greater Mekong Subregion is a matter of great concern. China has effectively controlled cross-border transmission of malaria and artemisinin resistance of P. falciparum along the China-Myanmar border.MethodsA combined quantitative and qualitative study was used to collect data, and then an integrated impact evaluation was conducted to malaria control along the China-Myanmar border during 2007–2013.ResultsThe parasite prevalence rate (PPR) in the five special regions of Myanmar was decreased from 13.6 % in March 2008 to 1.5 % in November 2013. Compared with the baseline (PPR in March 2008), the risk ratio was only 0.11 [95 % confidence interval (CI), 0.09–0. 14) in November 2013, which is equal to an 89 % reduction in the malaria burden. Annual parasite incidence (API) across 19 Chinese border counties was reduced from 19.6 per 10 000 person-years in 2006 to 0.9 per 10 000 person-years in 2013. Compared with the baseline (API in 2006), the API rate ratio was only 0.05(95 % CI, 0.04–0.05) in 2013, which equates to a reduction of the malaria burden by 95.0 %. Meanwhile, the health service system was strengthened and health inequity of marginalized populations reduced along the international border.ConclusionThe effective collaboration between China, Myanmar and the international non-governmental organization promptly carried out the core interventions through simplified processes. The integrated approaches dramatically decreased malaria burden of Chinese-Myanmar border.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-016-0171-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background.In older adults admitted to intensive care units (ICUs), frailty influences prognosis. We examined the relationship between the frailty index (FI) based on deficit accumulation and early and late survival.Methods.Older patients (≥65 years) admitted to a specialized geriatric ICU at the Liuhuaqiao Hospital, Guangzhou, China between July–December 2011 (n = 155; age 82.7±7.1 y; 87.1% men) were followed for 300 days. The FI was calculated as the proportion present of 52 health deficits. FI performance was compared with that of several prognostic scores.Results.The 90-day death rate was 38.7% (n = 60; 27 died within 30 days). The FI score was correlated with the Glasgow Coma Scale, Karnofsky Scale, Palliative Performance Scale, Acute Physiology Score—APACHE II and APACHE IV (r 2 = 0.52 to 0.72, p < 0.001). Patients who died within 30 days had higher mean FI scores (0.41±0.11) than those who survived to 300 days (0.22±0.11; F = 38.91, p < 0.001). Each 1% increase in the FI from the previous level was associated with an 11% increase in the 30-day mortality risk (95% CI: 7%–15%) adjusting for age, sex, and the prognostic scores. The FI discriminated patients who died in 30 days from those who survived with moderately high accuracy (AUC = 0.89±0.03). No one with an FI score >0.46 survived past 90 days.Conclusion.ICU survival was strongly associated with the level of frailty at admission. An FI based on health deficit accumulation may help improve critical care outcome prediction in older adults.

Higher K , BF, and BV values at baseline DCE-MRI suggested a poor ablation efficacy of HIFU therapy for symptomatic uterine fibroids, while the pretreatment DCE-MRI parameters could be useful biomarkers for predicting the ablation efficacy in select cases. The software used to calculate DCE-MRI parameters was simpler, quicker, and easier to incorporate into clinical practice.

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Virtual Touch tissue imaging quantification is efficient in differential diagnosis of metastatic and nonmetastatic cervical lymph nodes.

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