The analysis showed that, for both drugs, the most expensive events over one year were severe stroke, moderate stroke, and severe gastrointestinal (GI) haemorrhage, while the least costly events were mild intracranial or intracerebral haemorrhage, and fatal upper GI haemorrhage.
Over the five-year time horizon in the whole cohort of 10,000 hypothetical patients, the overall number of adverse events was 1,618.67 with warfarin and 1,390.29 with ximelagatran. The costs of these events were $18,330,662 and $17,102,847, respectively, for a difference of $1,261,991 (or $126 per patient, see 'CRD commentary')
For both drugs, the number of deaths and the costs of these fatalities were greater for haemorrhages than for the ischemic strokes.
Overall, there were 123 fatalities for warfarin and 101 fatalities for ximelagatran. Thus, warfarin was more costly and less effective (more adverse events and more deaths) compared with ximelagatran.
The sensitivity analysis suggested that assumptions regarding the length of stay in a nursing home had the greatest impact on the cost results.