There are over 250,000 international treaties that aim to foster global cooperation. But are treaties actually helpful for addressing global challenges? This systematic field-wide evidence synthesis of 224 primary studies and meta-analysis of the higher-quality 82 studies finds treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects. The only exceptions are treaties governing international trade and finance, which consistently produced intended effects. We also found evidence that impactful treaties achieve their effects through socialization and normative processes rather than longer-term legal processes and that enforcement mechanisms are the only modifiable treaty design choice with the potential to improve the effectiveness of treaties governing environmental, human rights, humanitarian, maritime, and security policy domains. This evidence synthesis raises doubts about the value of international treaties that neither regulate trade or finance nor contain enforcement mechanisms.

Chagas disease is among the 21 neglected diseases according to the World Health Organization. This study aimed to investigate the morbidity and mortality distribution of Chagas disease for identifying areas with greater prevalences and deaths of the disease in Northeast Brazil. A population-based ecological study was performed from 2016 to 2018 using data on acute Chagas disease patients from the Disease Notification Information System, chronic cases from the Chagas Disease and the referral Heart Failure Outpatient Clinic in Pernambuco, and Chagas disease-related mortality from the Mortality Information System. The unit of analysis were Pernambuco State mesoregions. The indicators were spatialized into thematic maps on the occurrence and mortality of the disease per 100,000 inhabitants. No cases of acute disease were reported in the period analyzed. Data on 801 chronic Chagas disease patients were analyzed. The population showed an average age of 62 years, with female predominance. The most prevalent comorbidity was systemic arterial hypertension and cardiologic involvement without ventricular dysfunction. The average chronic disease occurrence rate was 3.2/ 100,000 people/ year. As for deaths in the mortality system; in total, 350 deaths were recorded, showing male predominance, age ≥ 60 years, and chronic disease with cardiac involvement as the main mortality cause. The annual average mortality proportion was 1.6/100,000 people. The chronic case distribution showed spatial heterogeneity, with the highest rates of chronic disease and deaths observed in two mesoregions, with the main cause of death being heart-related. This highlights the need for more specialized services in areas with higher burden of the disease to avoid delay in the patients' care.

Introduction: The automated counting of reticulocytes has some advantages over the manual method routinely used in clinical laboratories. Technological innovations provide more statistically reliable results, while optimizing the time to perform this test. However, the cost for implementing the automated procedure in laboratory routines still constitutes a barrier to its use in small-and medium-size Brazilian laboratories. Objective: This study evaluated the performance of a new laboratory protocol for reticulocyte counting by flow cytometry using acridine orange (FC/AO), compared with the manual method and with another automated one by flow cytometry using the commercial kit BD Retic-Count (FC/RC). Conclusion: The results showed that, besides being comparable to the manual method, still considered standard, the evaluated new protocol is economically more advantageous than the automated methods currently available, and its cost is comparable to that of the manual method for laboratories that already have appropriate equipment and infrastructure.

Background: Cardiogenic Acute Pulmonary Edema (APE) is considered one of the main medical emergencies, and it is the extreme manifestation of acute heart failure. The main etiology of heart failure is ischemic heart disease. To date, the definition of ischemic etiology in acute pulmonary edema was based on criteria such as: clinical history of ischemic heart disease, noninvasive examinations and, in other patients, coronary angiography. Classified as such, ischemic heart disease has been shown to be its main etiology. The high prevalence between these two diseases was evaluated, but not by the exclusive angiographic criterion, the gold standard of this pathology and the reason of this study.Objective: To evaluate the predictors of obstructive coronary artery disease in patients with acute pulmonary edema of unclear origin.Method: Patients admitted to a cardiovascular disease referral emergency unit were recruited to undergo coronary angiography if the acute pulmonary edema etiology was not adequately elucidated. Obstructive coronary disease was considered if at least one epicardial vessel had 70% of occlusion.Results: Obstructive coronary disease was classified by coronary angiography in 149 consecutively evaluated patients, and coronary artery obstruction was the outcome variable of the predictor model. Among the variables related to coronary disease, the predictor variables were the history of coronary artery disease (p < 0.001) and myocardium segmental deficit at the echocardiogram (p < 0.02). Conclusion:The antecedent of coronary disease and the myocardium segmental deficit at the echocardiogram were able to discriminate patients with acute pulmonary edema associated with obstructive coronary disease. Troponin values classified by two cardiologists as secondary to an acute non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, and chest pain preceding the clinical picture were not able to discriminate patients with or without coronary obstruction and thus, the diagnosis of obstructive coronary disease should not be pursued based on the troponin value and/or chest pain preceding the clinical picture.