Clinical- and Cost-Effectiveness of Liver Disease Staging in Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Microsimulation Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Liver disease assessment is a key aspect of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection pre-treatment evaluation but guidelines differ on the optimal testing modality given trade-offs in availability and accuracy. We compared clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of common fibrosis staging strategies.

Methods

We simulated adults with chronic HCV receiving care at US health centers through a lifetime microsimulation across five strategies: (1) no staging or treatment (comparator), (2) indirect serum biomarker testing (Fibrosis-4 index [FIB-4]) only, (3) transient elastography (TE) only, (4) staged approach: FIB-4 for all, TE only for intermediate FIB-4 scores (1.45-3.25), and (5) both tests for all. Outcomes included infections cured, cirrhosis cases, liver-relate

SUBMITTER: Epstein RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11848265 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature