The Scarlet Abbreviation: NGAL.

NGAL will save lives and money.

Or so a study performed by Duke University Center, supported by the ever present giant Abbott, claims.

The study focused on two aspects of using an NGAL test as well as the usual creatinine test.

1: Will hospitals save money using a NGAL test.

2: Will the result be better with a combination of both test,  rather than just relying on Serum Creatinine.

The results are, that not only will hospitals save money, but the patients will also have a higher QALY score. (quality-adjusted life year)

“The base case yielded expected costs of £4,244 and 11.86 QALYs for NGAL compared with £4,672 and 11.79 QALYs without NGAL.”

So for less money, you get more life value.

(This will be even better with the cheaper and faster “The NGAL Test” from Bioporto Diagnostics)

Read the article of QALY and NGAL/creatinine here.

And then at the Society of Critical Care Medicine’ Critical Care Congress (#40) in January 2011, this abstract turned up.

http://www.eventkaddy.com/sccm/abstractInfo.asp?abstractId=368

This is what the abstract claims:

“At center 1, uNGAL+Scr resulted in 1,987 fewer pts with delayed diagnosis & treatment than Scr alone (448 vs. 2,435 pts), while uNGAL+Scr identified 535 more pts who received unnecessary further testing. Similar findings were observed in center 2 (7,829 more pts with delayed diagnosis & treatment; 311 more pts treated unnecessarily). Although initial evaluation costs at each center was $50 pp higher in the uNGAL+Scr arm, total cost declined as fewer pts had delayed diagnosis & treatment or unnecessary treatment (Center 1-$233 pp; Center 2-$3,229 pp). Conclusions: uNGAL in addition to Scr improves patient management & reduces costs. uNGAL is a reliable, cost-saving test for evaluating suspected AKI, & savings are particularly high when Scr specificity is low.”

SO….

As a result of using an NGAL test, as well as a creatinine test, you would save:

At Center one: 233$
At Center two: 3,229$