Objectives
Movement restriction policies (MRPs) are effective in preventing/delaying COVID-19 transmission but are associated with high societal cost. This study aims to estimate the health burden of the first wave of COVID-19 in China and the cost-effectiveness of early versus late implementation of MRPs to inform preparation for future waves.
Methods
The SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infectious, and recovered) modeling framework was adapted to simulate the health and cost outcomes of initiating MRPs at different times: rapid implementation (January 23, the real-world scenario), delayed by 1 week, delayed by 2 weeks, and delayed by 4 weeks. The end point was set as the day when newly confirmed cases reached zero. Two costing perspectives were adopted: healthcare and societal. Input data were obtained from official statistics and published literature. The primary outcomes were disability-adjusted life-years, cost, and net monetary benefit. Costs were reported in both Chinese renminbi (RMB) and US dollars (USD) at 2019 values.
Results
The first wave of COVID-19 in China resulted in 38 348 disability adjusted life-years lost (95% CI 19 417-64 130) and 2639 billion RMB losses (95% CI 1347-4688). The rapid implementation strategy dominated all other delayed strategies. This conclusion was robust to all scenarios tested. At a willingness-to-pay threshold of 70 892 RMB (the national annual GDP per capita) per disability-adjusted life-year saved, the probability for the rapid implementation to be the optimal strategy was 96%.
Conclusions
Early implementation of MRPs in response to COVID-19 reduced both the health burden and societal cost and thus should be used for future waves of COVID-19.
ObjectiveTo investigate the role of quantitative analysis of T2 relaxation time in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnosis of breast cancer.MethodsThe study enrolled patients with clinical breast masses who were examined using MRI at eight different echo times. The differences in T2 relaxation time of benign and malignant breast lesions were analysed.ResultsA total of 67 patients (67 breast lesions: 46 malignant, 21 benign) were examined. The mean ± SD T2 relaxation time was significantly lower in the 46 malignant lesions compared with the 21 benign lesions (82.69 ± 15.37 ms versus 95.48 ± 26.51 ms, respectively). The area under the curve was 0.731. Using 79.52 ms as the cut-off between benign and malignant breast lesions, a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 58.7% were obtained.ConclusionsThere was a significant difference in T2 relaxation time between benign and malignant breast lesions. The specificity of using T2 relaxation time alone for the differentiation of benign from malignant lesions was not high, but it could constitute a new adjunct in the MRI diagnosis of breast cancer.
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