To treat or not to treat? Cost-effectiveness of ace inhibitors in non-diabetic advanced renal disease - a Dutch perspective.

BACKGROUND Treating non-diabetic proteinuric patients with advanced renal disease with an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor is still subject to discussion. This study aims to determine the cost-effectiveness of ACE inhibitor therapy in this patient population in the Netherlands. METHODS We compared two strategies: first, treating patients with advanced renal disease with an ACE inhibitor and no-treatment. A lifetime Markov decision model was developed simulating the progression of renal disease and using published data on costs and health outcomes. A health care perspective was adopted. RESULTS In the base-case analysis, treatment with ACE inhibitors leads to higher benefits and lower costs and dominates the no-treatment strategy. Sensitivity analysis shows that the probability of savings is 83%. CONCLUSION ACE inhibitor treatment for non-diabetic patients with advanced renal disease in the Netherlands is highly cost-effective and should therefore be considered.