Objective: To calculate the cost-effectiveness of implementing PlGF testing alongside a clinical management algorithm in maternity services in the UK, compared with current standard care.
Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis.
Setting: Eleven maternity units participating in the PARROT stepped-wedge cluster-randomised controlled trial.
Population: Women presenting with suspected pre-eclampsia between 20+0 and 36+6 weeks' gestation.
Methods: Monte Carlo simulation utilising resource use data and maternal adverse outcomes.
Main outcome measures: Cost per maternal adverse outcome prevented.
Results: Clinical care with PlGF testing costs less than current standard practice and resulted in fewer maternal adverse outcomes. There is a total cost-saving of UK£149 per patient tested, when including the cost of the test. This represents a potential cost-saving of UK£2,891,196 each year across the NHS in England.
Conclusions: Clinical care with PlGF testing is associated with the potential for cost-savings per participant tested when compared with current practice via a reduction in outpatient attendances, and improves maternal outcomes. This economic analysis supports a role for implementation of PlGF testing in antenatal services for the assessment of women with suspected pre-eclampsia.
Tweetable abstract: Placental growth factor testing for suspected pre-eclampsia is cost-saving and improves maternal outcomes.
Keywords: Economic analysis; placental growth factor; pre-eclampsia.
© 2019 The Authors BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.