Cost-effectiveness of using electron beam computed tomography to identify patients at risk for clinical coronary artery disease

Vascular Inflammation: A New Horizon in Cardiovascular Risk Assessment

“…Most studies assessing cost effectiveness of diagnostic modalities use the Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) as a measure of cost effectiveness. ICER is defined as the ratio of the change in costs secondary to an intervention/test (compared to the alternative, such as doing nothing or using the best available alternative treatment) to the change in effects of the same (O'Malley & Greenberg, 2004). O'Malley and colleagues (2004) were able to demonstrate an ICER of $86752.…”

“…Despite significant challenges, three studies have attempted to study cost effectiveness of CAC scoring (O'Malley & Greenberg, 2004;Taylor et al, 2005;. Most studies assessing cost effectiveness of diagnostic modalities use the Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) as a measure of cost effectiveness.…”

Noninvasive Screening for Coronary Artery Disease With Computed Tomography Is Useful

“…The ROC curve analyses comparing the NCEP II guidelines to EBCT scores were 0.74 and 0.91, respectively, indicating the possible significance of the EBCT CAC score as a significant predictor. 68 A recent article from the same investigators reported on a 3.6-year follow-up of 1172 patients with a 99% response rate. CAC scores remained independently associated with outcomes of hard and soft cardiac events after adjustment for self-reported standard risk factors.…”

“…Thus, it is important to evaluate the significance of CAC as a predictor for future myocardial events. Five recent studies have evaluated the significance of CAC as a predictor for future myocardial events since the initial article by Arad et al 68 in 1996. These articles have been selected for this review and include data from a total of 17 976 subjects who were self-/physician referred and 6897 prospectively enrolled for EBCT CAC studies.…”

“…1,67 Several studies have attempted to assess the costs associated with EBCT. [67][68][69][70][71] However, 2 of these studies 69,70 examined EBCT in the workup of symptomatic patients who were, by definition not engaged in preventive screening. Cost-effectiveness studies assess value in terms of the ratio of incremental cost per incremental quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained.…”