Use of Aerocrine products for FENO measurement improves asthma management by detecting the type of underlying inflammation and as a result predicts patients who best respond to anti-inflammatory therapy, such as inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). The immediate cost-saving implication is that FENO optimizes anti-inflammatory therapy and helps identify patients in whom ICS may not have an effect. As a diagnostic tool, FENO can also help reduce the number of patients misdiagnosed with asthma who end up requiring subsequent consultations.
Furthermore, as FENO is sensitive to minor changes in eosinophilic inflammation, it can be used to titrate the steroid dose according to an individual patient’s need. Again, this results in less healthcare resource wastage. In fact, recent data shows that the introduction of regular FENO measurements using the NIOX family of products balances the costs incurred by the tests and generates a cost saving. A German study published in January 2008 showed that regular use of NIOX MINO to monitor FENO in asthma patients using ICS resulted in a cost saving of €30 per patient per year.[Berg] In patients with more severe asthma, NIOX MINO use resulted in savings of €160 per patient per year.
In addition, UK results published in the Allergy Journal, Feb 2009, demonstrate that routine exhaled NO measurement in patients that use cortisone inhaler generates a cost saving of £341 per patient and year. For sufferers of more severe asthma, the saving is £554 per patient and year. The savings are possible because treatment can be optimised using the results from NIOX MINO tests. This reduces the number of visits to casualty and hospital admissions, and cuts the amount of cortisone inhaler doses needed to keep patients symptom free.
The obvious outcome of FENO monitoring with NIOX MINO is a healthier patient who is not as likely to need acute emergency care. Not only does that translate to cost savings, but it also includes more indirect savings like increased productivity since less time is taken off work due to illness. Thus, the introduction of continuous inflammation monitoring not only outweighs the cost of testing with NIOX MINO, but also cuts the total cost of care.