



Dataset: https://github.com/maryamsadeghimehr/HCV_Antigen
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Hepatitis C core antigen test as an alternative for diagnosing HCV infection: mathematical model and cost-effectiveness analysis |
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Authors | ![]() | |
Published in | PeerJ. 2021, vol. 9, e11895 | |
Abstract |
Background: The cost and complexity of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test are barriers to diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of testing strategies using antigen instead of PCR testing. Methods: We developed a mathematical model for HCV to estimate the number of diagnoses and cases of liver disease. We compared the following testing strategies: antibody test followed by PCR in case of positive antibody (baseline strategy); antibody test followed by HCV-antigen test (antibody-antigen); antigen test alone; PCR test alone. We conducted cost-effectiveness analyses considering either the costs of HCV testing of infected and uninfected individuals alone (A1), HCV testing and liver-related complications (A2), or all costs including HCV treatment (A3). The model was parameterized for the country of Georgia. We conducted several sensitivity analyses. Results: The baseline scenario could detect 89% of infected individuals. Antibody-antigen detected 86% and antigen alone 88% of infected individuals. PCR testing alone detected 91% of the infected individuals: the remaining 9% either died or spontaneously recovered before testing. In analysis A1, the baseline strategy was not essentially more expensive than antibody-antigen. In analysis A2, strategies using PCR became cheaper than antigen-based strategies. In analysis A3, antibody-antigen was again the cheapest strategy, followed by the baseline strategy, and PCR testing alone. Conclusions: Antigen testing, either following a positive antibody test or alone, performed almost as well as the current practice of HCV testing. The cost-effectiveness of these strategies depends on the inclusion of treatment costs. |
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Keywords | Antigen — Country of Georgia — Diagnostic test — HCV — Hepatitis C — Mathematical modeling — PCR — Polymerase chain reaction — Progression model — Screening strategies | |
Identifiers | DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11895 PMID: 34595063 PMCID: PMC8436958 | |
Full text |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Dataset: https://github.com/maryamsadeghimehr/HCV_Antigen |
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Structures | ||
Research groups | Etudes et traitement de l'hépatite C et B (554) Maladies infectieuses et modèles mathématiques (988) | |
Projects | Swiss National Science Foundation: 33CS30_177521 Swiss National Science Foundation: PP00P3_163878 | |
Citation (ISO format) | SADEGHIMEHR, Maryam et al. Hepatitis C core antigen test as an alternative for diagnosing HCV infection: mathematical model and cost-effectiveness analysis. In: PeerJ, 2021, vol. 9, p. e11895. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11895 https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:156710 |