Amyloid-PET not cost effective in patients with mild cognitive impairment in South Korea

Abstract

A cost-utility analysis published in Cost Effectiveness Resource Allocation has found that amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) does not appear to be cost effective for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease in patients with mild cognitive impairment in South Korea. A Markov model was constructed to assess the cost effectiveness of amyloid PET versus current practice in a hypothetical cohort of 60-year-old patients with mild cognitive impairment. Data inputs were taken from Koreanspecific data and other published literature, and costs were taken from a local survey. Direct medical and nonmedical costs (2019 values) included those for time and travel costs for both patients and caregivers, care costs including caregivers’ time costs, and long-term care costs were included. Amyloid PET resulted in a 0.003 increase in QALYs at an additional cost of $US1250 per patient, compared with current practice. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was $371 545 per QALY. Even after considering inflation, the ICER of our model is considerably higher than the willingness-to-pay per QALY in South Korea , conclude the authors.