OBJECTIVES: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a chronic disease characterized by increased pulmonary arterial pressure that can lead to ventricular failure and death. The aim of this study was to estimate the annual cost per patient by functional class (FC) for the national/provincial social security and private sector perspective and by geographic location of the healthcare providers for Argentina.

METHODS: To estimate resource use and related unit costs, expert interviews were conducted using the modified Delphi Panel methodology, then a process of integrating total costs was generated using a micro-costing approach. Resource use and costs of pharmacological schemes, therapeutic measures, hospital admissions and serious events were collected for FC I, II, III and IV of PAH considering the costs of the healthcare providers.

RESULTS: The total annual cost for a patient with FC I ranges from USD 16,840 to USD 26,990, from USD 56,059 to USD 75,965 for FC II, from USD 187,186 to USD 268,162 for FC III and from USD 357,361 to USD 523,499 for FC IV. On average, the annual cost per patient of progressing from FC I to FC IV increases by 20,7 times. The most expensive FC is the FC III due to the concentration of patients (47% of total). Approximately, 88.58% of the total cost per patient in FC I is associated with pharmacological treatments. This proportion increases to 96.14%, 95.93% and 93.51% for FC II, III and IV respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: PAH is a chronic disease with high cost treatment. The highest costs are due to the pharmacological schemes. Early diagnosis is important to try to maintain patients in FC I/II where the associated costs are lower. Despite the limitations of the possible bias existence of the estimation methods, this is the first study to estimate the resource use and treatment costs of PAH in Argentina.