• Chong Hyun Suh, Kyung Won Kim, Seong Ho Park, So Yeon Kim, Dong-Cheol Woo, Sangjin Shin, Junhee Pyo, Atul B Shinagare, Nikhil H Ramaiya, and Young-Suk Lim.
• 1 Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, Asan Liver Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, Republic of Korea.
• AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2018 Feb 1; 210 (2): W63-W69.

ObjectiveWe determined the cost-effectiveness of two different diagnostic imaging strategies in guiding curative treatment of early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Materials And MethodsWe developed a decision analytic model using as its starting point a cohort of patients aged 55 years with early-stage HCC detected at dynamic multiphasic CT and with Child-Pugh class A cirrhosis. The model compared two strategies on the initial workup: conventional CT strategy using dynamic multiphasic CT only and gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI strategy using additional gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI after initial CT. A Markov cohort model simulated a cohort of patients after curative or adjuvant treatment, with follow-up over the remaining life expectancy. We analyzed mean life-years gain, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), costs per person, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). To evaluate results, we performed one-way, two-way, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.ResultsThe life expectancies and QALY were 7.22 years and 5.08 for the conventional CT strategy and 7.79 years and 5.52 for the gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI strategy, respectively. The expected costs were $99,770 for conventional CT and $105,025 for gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI in the United States. The ICER with gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI was $11,957, as opposed to that with conventional CT, which was lower than the cost-effectiveness threshold of $50,000/QALY. One-way, two-way, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses showed unchanged results over an acceptable range.ConclusionGadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI after CT is cost-effective for detecting additional HCC in patients with early-stage HCC who can undergo curative treatment (besides liver transplantation). The cost-effectiveness of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI may be considered in the management of patients with early-stage HCC during staging.

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