ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: We have shown that a case-based training programme for general practitioners, aimed to implement evidence-based care of patients at very high risk of coronary death, was associated with decreased mortality. In the present study we assessed long-term cost-effectiveness of this programme. DESIGN: Registry-based long-term cost-effectiveness analysis on a clinical trial. METHODS: Costs of the programme, health care, drugs and added years of life were included. Costs were adjusted to 2012 level and discounted by 3%. Life-years gained were estimated as the difference between the survival curves of the trial. The effectiveness measure, quality adjusted life-years (QALYs), was constructed by multiplying each life-year with a quality of life weight corresponding to the health status of that year. QALYs were also discounted by 3%. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was estimated as the incremental cost per QALY gained. RESULTS: The number of undiscounted life-years gained was 365 days in the intervention group as compared to control (p = 0.02). The number of discounted QALYs gained was 0.66. The net increase in total costs was estimated as 17,862 when costs of added years of life were included and 4621 exclusive of these costs. This implied an ICER of 27,063 per gained QALY. This ICER is well below commonly used threshold values of the societal willingness to pay for a QALY. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that a case-based training programme of general practitioners is a cost-effective way to save years of life in patients with very high risk of coronary death.
Subject(s)
Coronary Artery Disease/economics , Coronary Artery Disease/therapy , Evidence-Based Medicine/education , Physicians, Primary Care/education , Cardiovascular Agents/economics , Cost-Benefit Analysis , Female , Hospitalization/economics , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Quality-Adjusted Life Years , SwedenABSTRACT
RATIONALE: At the onset of ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI), patients can present with very high circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6(+)) levels or very low-IL-6(-) levels. OBJECTIVE: We compared these 2 groups of patients to understand whether it is possible to define specific STEMI phenotypes associated with outcome based on the cytokine response. METHODS AND RESULTS: We compared 109 patients with STEMI in the top IL-6 level (median, 15.6 pg/mL; IL-6(+) STEMI) with 96 in the bottom IL-6 level (median, 1.7 pg/mL; IL-6(-) STEMI) and 103 matched controls extracted from the multiethnic First Acute Myocardial Infarction study. We found minimal clinical differences between IL-6(+) STEMI and IL-6(-) STEMI. We assessed the inflammatory profiles of the 2 STEMI groups and the controls by measuring 18 cytokines in blood samples. We exploited clustering analysis algorithms to infer the functional modules of interacting cytokines. IL-6(+) STEMI patients were characterized by the activation of 2 modules of interacting signals comprising IL-10, IL-8, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, and C-reactive protein, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, macrophage inflammatory protein-1ß, and monokine induced by interferon-γ. IL-10 was increased both in IL-6(+) STEMI and IL-6(-) STEMI patients compared with controls. IL-6(+)IL-10(+) STEMI patients had an increased risk of systolic dysfunction at discharge and an increased risk of death at 6 months in comparison with IL-6(-)IL-10(+) STEMI patients. We combined IL-10 and monokine induced by interferon-γ (derived from the 2 identified cytokine modules) with IL-6 in a formula yielding a risk index that outperformed any single cytokine in the prediction of systolic dysfunction and death. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a characteristic circulating inflammatory cytokine pattern in STEMI patients, which is not related to the extent of myocardial damage. The simultaneous elevation of IL-6 and IL-10 levels distinguishes STEMI patients with worse clinical outcomes from other STEMI patients. These observations could have potential implications for risk-oriented patient stratification and immune-modulating therapies.