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Cost-effectiveness analysis is a collection of methods for comparing the costs and health benefits of one intervention with another. These methods are useful when a more effective intervention is also more expensive.
The choice between streptokinase and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for the treatment of acute MI presents an ideal issue for these methods. Following the GUSTO trial, the FDA recently affirmed the manufacturer's claims that t-PA is more effective in reducing mortality than streptokinase, the less expensive choice.
The GUSTO investigators, anticipating that t-PA would be more effective, prospectively collected economic information. At one year of follow-up, patients who received t-PA had used $2,845 more in resources than th…