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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Transient elastography for screening of liver fibrosis: cost-effectiveness analysis from six prospective cohorts in Europe and Asia
Paolo AngeliVincent Wai-sun WongCarmen ExpósitoIndra Neil GuhaLaurent CasteraFrank LammertAleksander KragPere ToránLlorenç CaballeríaIsabel GrauperaA ArslanowNúria FabrellasMiquel Serra-burrielRosario HernándezMaja ThieleDavid J. HarmanPeter R. GalleGrace Lai-hung WongDominique RoulotSarwa Darwish-muradGuillem PeraPere GinèsGuruprasad P Aithalsubject
0301 basic medicinemedicine.medical_specialtyTransient elastographyPopulationLiver fibrosisDisease03 medical and health sciencesLiver disease0302 clinical medicineFibrosisInternal medicinemedicineeducationeducation.field_of_studyAlcohol-related liver diseaseHepatologybusiness.industryFatty liverCost-effectiveness analysismedicine.disease3. Good health030104 developmental biologyStratified screening030211 gastroenterology & hepatologyTransient elastographybusinessHepatic fibrosisNon-alcoholic fatty liver diseasedescription
Background & Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcohol-related liver disease pose an important challenge to current clinical healthcare pathways because of the large number of at-risk patients. Therefore, we aimed to explore the cost-effectiveness of transient elastography (TE) as a screening method to detect liver fibrosis in a primary care pathway. Methods: Cost-effectiveness analysis was performed using real-life individual patient data from 6 independent prospective cohorts (5 from Europe and 1 from Asia). A diagnostic algorithm with conditional inference trees was developed to explore the relationships between liver stiffness, socio-demographics, comorbidities, and hepatic fibrosis, the latter assessed by fibrosis scores (FIB-4, NFS) and liver biopsies in a subset of 352 patients. We compared the incremental cost-effectiveness of a screening strategy against standard of care alongside the numbers needed to screen to diagnose a patient with fibrosis stage ≥F2. Results: The data set encompassed 6,295 participants (mean age 55 ± 12 years, BMI 27 ± 5 kg/m2, liver stiffness 5.6 ± 5.0 kPa). A 9.1 kPa TE cut-off provided the best accuracy for the diagnosis of significant fibrosis (≥F2) in general population settings, whereas a threshold of 9.5 kPa was optimal for populations at-risk of alcohol-related liver disease. TE with the proposed cut-offs outperformed fibrosis scores in terms of accuracy. Screening with TE was cost-effective with mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratios ranging from 2,570 €/QALY (95% CI 2,456–2,683) for a population at-risk of alcohol-related liver disease (age ≥45 years) to 6,217 €/QALY (95% CI 5,832–6,601) in the general population. Overall, there was a 12% chance of TE screening being cost saving across countries and populations. Conclusions: Screening for liver fibrosis with TE in primary care is a cost-effective intervention for European and Asian populations and may even be cost saving. Lay summary: The lack of optimized public health screening strategies for the detection of liver fibrosis in adults without known liver disease presents a major healthcare challenge. Analyses from 6 independent international cohorts, with transient elastography measurements, show that a community-based risk-stratification strategy for alcohol-related and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases is cost-effective and potentially cost saving for our healthcare systems, as it leads to earlier identification of patients.
year | journal | country | edition | language |
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2019-12-01 |