Fractional exhaled nitric oxide versus eosinophil count in induced
sputum for monitoring to guide the management of children with asthma: a
cost-utility analysis
Abstract
Introduction Previous evidence has shown that FeNO and EO are
cost-effective relative to standard of care in guiding the management of
children with persistent asthma. There is some doubt as if there are
differences between these two biomarkers in terms of costs and benefits.
Clarifying this doubt would allow to prioritize in the design of
clinical practice guidelines. The study aimed to compare in terms of
costs and benefits these biomarkers in patients with asthma between 4
and 18 years of age.3 Methods A Markov model was used to estimate the
cost-utility of asthma management using FeNO and EO in patients between
4 and 18 years of age. Transition probabilities, cost and utilities were
estimated from previously published local studies, while relative risks
were obtained from the systematic review of published randomized
clinical trials. The analysis was carried out from a societal
perspective. Results FeNO was associated with lower cost (US$ 1333 CI
95% US$ 1331-1335 vs US$ 1452 CI 95% US$ 1449-1454) and highest
QALY (0.93 CI 95% 0.93-0.94 vs 0.92 CI 95% 0.91-0.92) than EO. In the
sensitivity analyses, our base‐case results were robust to variations of
all assumptions and parameters. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that
FeNO-guided treatment is better than EO because it offers a greater
number of years of life with a lower cost per patient. This evidence
should encourage the adoption of any of these techniques to objectively
guide the management of children with asthma in routine clinical
practice in low resource settings.