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简介：AbstractBackground:Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have long been overlooked in the global health agenda. They are intimately related to poverty, cause important local burdens of disease, but individually do not represent global priorities. Yet, NTDs were estimated to affect close to 2 billion people at the turn of the millennium, with a collective burden equivalent to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria. A global response was therefore warranted.Main text:The World Health Organization (WHO) conceived an innovative strategy in the early 2000s to combat NTDs as a group of diseases, based on a combination of five public health interventions. Access to essential NTD medicines has hugely improved thanks to strong public-private partnership involving the pharmaceutical sector. The combination of a WHO NTD roadmap with clear targets to be achieved by 2020 and game-changing partner commitments endorsed in the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, have led to unprecedented progress in the implementation of large-scale preventive treatment, case management and care of NTDs. The coming decade will see as challenges the mainstreaming of these NTD interventions into Universal Health Coverage and the coordination with other sectors to get to the roots of poverty and scale up transmission-breaking interventions. Chinese expertise with the elimination of multiple NTDs, together with poverty reduction and intersectoral action piloted by municipalities and local governments, can serve as a model for the latter. The international community will also need to keep a specific focus on NTDs in order to further steer this global response, manage the scaling up and sustainment of NTD interventions globally, and develop novel products and implementation strategies for NTDs that are still lagging behind.Conclusions:The year 2020 will be crucial for the future of the global response to NTDs. Progress against the 2020 roadmap targets will be assessed, a new 2021-2030 NTD roadmap will be launched, and the London Declaration commitments will need to be renewed. It is hoped that during the coming decade the global response will be able to further build on today's successes, align with the new global health and development frameworks, but also keep focused attention on NTDs and mobilize enough resources to see the effort effectively through to 2030.

简介：AbstractBackground:When utilizing the retrosigmoid approach (RA), accurately identifying the transverse and sigmoid sinus transition (TSST) is a key procedure for neurosurgeons, especially in developing countries restricted by the lack of expensive devices, such as the neural navigation system and the three-dimensional volumetric image-rendered system. Before operations, a computed tomography scan is a common and cost-effective method of checking patients who suffer lesions located at the cerebellopontine angle. Therefore, we present a technique using only high-resolution computed tomography to identify the transverse and sigmoid sinus transition.Methods:This retrospective study included 35 patients who underwent retrosigmoid approach operations to resect an acoustic neurinoma with the assistance of our technique. In brief, our technique contains 4 steps: (1) All patients’ 1-mm, consecutive, high-resolution computed tomographic images that clearly displayed landmarks, such as the inion, lambdoid suture, occipitomastoid suture, and the mastoid emissary foramen, were investigated initially. (2) We selected two particular slices (A and B) among all of these high-resolution computed tomographic images in which scanning planes were parallel with the line drawn from the root of the zygoma to the inion (LZI). Slice A contained both the root of the zygoma and the inion simultaneously, and slice B displayed the mastoid emissary foramen. (3) Four points (α, β, γ, δ) were arranged on slices A and B, and point α was located at the inner surface of the skull, which represents the posterior part of the sulci of the sigmoid sinus. Point β was located at the outer surface of the skull, and the line connecting them was perpendicular to the bone. Similarly, on slice B, we labeled point γ as the point that represents the posterior part of the sulci of the sigmoid sinus at the inner surface and point δ as the point located at the outer surface of the skull, and the line connecting them was also perpendicular to the bone. The distances between point β and the lambdoid suture/occipitomastoid suture and between point δ and the mastoid emissary foramen were calculated for slices A and B, respectively. (4) During the operation, a line indicating the LZI was drawn on the bone with ink when the superficial soft tissue was pushed away, and this line would cross the lambdoid suture/occipitomastoid suture. With both the crosspoint and the distance obtained from the high-resolution CT images, we could locate point β. We also used the same method to locate point δ after revealing the mastoid emissary foramen. The line connecting point β and point δ indicated the posterior border of the sigmoid sinus, and the intersection between the line and LZI indicated the inferior knee of the transverse and sigmoid sinus transition (TSST).Results:All 35 patients underwent the RA craniectomies that were safely assisted by our technique, and neither the sigmoid sinus nor the transverse sinus was lacerated during the operations.Conclusion:Our cost-effective technique is reliable and convenient for identifying the transverse and sigmoid sinus transition (TSST) which could be widely performed to guarantee the safety of RA craniectomy.