While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .
Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor reverses neutropenia and reduces secondary infections in visceral leishmaniasis.
Twenty-four patients with acute visceral leishmaniasis and leukopenia ( < 1500 neutrophils/mm3 ) due to Leishmania chagasi were studied , 4 in an open-label pilot study and 20 in a double-blind , placebo-controlled trial . Patients received granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor ( GM-CSF ) , 5 micrograms/kg daily , or placebo for 10 days , plus 10 - 20 mg/kg pentavalent antimony daily for 20 days . In GM-CSF recipients , neutrophil counts increased threefold and fourfold over baseline at 5 and 10 days , respectively , and were significantly higher than those in placebo recipients ( P < .02 ) . Eosinophil and monocyte counts were significantly increase in GM-CSF recipients at 10 days ( P < or = .03 ) . Secondary infections occurred in 3 GM-CSF and in 8 placebo recipients ( P = .04 ) . All patients had complete resolution of their leishmaniasis at 3 months . Few adverse events were recorded . GM-CSF , 5 micrograms/kg daily for 10 days , was safe , rapidly reversed neutropenia , and reduced the number of secondary infections in patients with leishmaniasis
While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .