While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .
Clinical and Economic Impact of Diabetes Mellitus on Percutaneous and Surgical Treatment of Multivessel Coronary Disease Patients: Insights From the Arterial Revascularization Therapy Study (ARTS) Trial
Background —Our aims were to compare coronary artery bypass grafting ( CABG ) and stenting for the treatment of diabetic patients with multivessel coronary disease enrolled in the Arterial Revascularization Therapy Study ( ARTS ) trial and to determine the costs of these 2 treatment strategies . Methods and Results — Patients ( n=1205 ) were r and omly assigned to stent implantation  ( n=600 ; diabetic , 112 ) or CABG ( n=605 ; diabetic , 96 ) . Costs per patient were calculated as the product of each patient ’s use of re sources and the corresponding unit costs . Baseline characteristics were similar between the groups . At 1 year , diabetic patients treated with stenting had the lowest event-free survival rate ( 63.4 % ) because of a higher incidence of repeat revascularization compared with both diabetic patients treated with CABG ( 84.4 % , P < 0.001 ) and nondiabetic patients treated with stents ( 76.2 % , P = 0.04 ) . Conversely , diabetic and nondiabetic patients experienced similar 1-year event-free survival rates when treated with CABG ( 84.4 % and 88.4 % ) . The total 1-year costs for stenting and CABG in diabetic patients were $ 12 855 and $ 16 585 ( P < 0.001 ) and in the nondiabetic groups , $ 10 164 for stenting and $ 13 082 for surgery . Conclusions —Multivessel diabetic patients treated with stenting  had a worse 1-year outcome than patients assigned to CABG or nondiabetics treated with stenting . The strategy of stenting was less costly than CABG , however , regardless of diabetic status
While we found relatively good st and ards of reporting the study ’s question , population , interventions , comparators and conclusions , the overall reporting was poor , and evidence of unfamiliarity with international guidelines was evident ( i.e. absence of incremental analysis , of discounting long-term costs and effects ) .
Analysis or description of place-to-place variability was infrequent .
Use and acceptance of health economic evaluations ( HEEs ) has been much greater in developed than in developing nations .
Nevertheless , while developing countries lag behind in the development of HEE methods , they could benefit from the progress made in other countries and concentrate on ways in which existing methods can be used or would need to be modified to fulfill their specific needs .
HEEs , as context -specific tools , are not easily generalizable from setting to setting .
Existing studies regarding generalizability and transferability of HEEs have primarily been conducted in developed countries .
Therefore , a legitimate question for policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean region ( LAC ) is to what extent HEEs conducted in industrialized economies and in LAC are generalizable to LAC ( trans-regional ) and to other LAC countries ( intra-regional ) , respectively .