Guidelines for Utility Measurement for Economic Analysis: The Brazilian Policy.

INTRODUCTION: Health-related quality of life is expressed in utilities, also referred to as utility estimates or parameters. Considerations about the source and type of utility values are especially important in a modeling context, where the lack of transparency, including the lack of a hierarchy for utility data sources, is a major issue to any estimation and can potentially compromise model reliability. OBJECTIVES: This document aims to present the first version of the Brazilian guidelines for utility measurement to support economic analysis. METHODS: A virtual workshop and a modified Delphi panel with 10 health technology specialists followed a rapid evaluation of 110 technical documents and indexed publications. The recommendations are based on the proposition that has received the most votes, although contentious issues are addressed in the suggestion or discussion. The rationale for the final decision is included in the text. RESULTS: The consensus includes 50 recommendations with the following topics: Transparency and Reliability, Model Design, Conditions Under Which Generic Questionnaires Are Not Sensible or Valid, Utility Evidence Hierarchy, Utility Data Searching, Modeling Utility Values, Extrapolating Quality Adjusted Life-Years for Models With Lifetime Horizons, Caregiver Utility, Utility Data Synthesis, Quality/Certainty of the Evidence, and Utility Estimates in End-of-Life Conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The goal of this project is to create unified national standards for using utility metrics in economic analysis in Brazil. This set of recommendations is not obligatory, but it is meant to serve as a guide and lead to the development of better and more transparent economic models in the country.

Perfil clínico e avaliação de risco prognóstico dos pacientes com insuficiência cardíaca aguda com função sistólica preservada versus disfunção sistólica / Clinical profile and prognostic risk assessment of patients with acute heart failure with preserved systolic function versus systolic dysfunction

Objetivo: Comparar o perfil clínico e escala ADHERE na insuficiência cardíaca aguda (ICA) com (ICAD) e sem função sistólica (ICAS) preservada. Métodos: Avaliação retrospectiva da ICA na emergência, entre 04/2004 e 05/2005. 86 portadores de ICA submeteram-se a exames clínicos laboratoriais(BNP, sódio, hemoglobina, uréia e creatinina), classificação de ADHERE, e ecocardiograma com fração de ejeção (FE) maior que 40 por cento na ICAD e menor que 40 por cento na ICAS. Foram empregados os testes de Mann-Whitney e qui-quadrado. Resultados: 51 tinham ICAD e 35 ICAS, sem diferença quanto: sexo (p igual a 0,14), causa da IC (p igual a 0,48), diabetes (p igual a 0,36), DPOC (0,97), insuficiência renal (0,21) e infarto do miocárdio prévio (p igual a 0,92). Os pacientes com ICAD eram mais idosos (80 x 72 anos, p igual a 0,01), sem história (52 por cento x 20,5 por cento, p igual a 0,03) ou internações prévias por IC (37 por cento x 63 por cento, p igual a 0,018), tinham mais HAS (92 por cento vs 72 por cento, p igual a 0,01) e PAS admissional maior (150mmHg x 130mmHg, p igual a 0,0007)...