[Clinical and economic cost-benefit relations in treatment of patients with coronary heart disease].

Economic evaluation of medical treatment in terms of costs and utility has gained increasing interest within the medical community and in political discussions. In particular this applies for highly prevalent diseases such as coronary artery disease, still the most common cause of death in the western world. Health economy studies can be performed from different perspectives (e.g., hospital, insurance company, society) and with various approaches (e.g., cost-utility analysis, cost minimization). Those will be discussed for the primary prevention of myocardial infarction, coronary stent implantation, and for rehabilitation programs after myocardial infarction, serving as examples. Health-economical analyses provide data to compare treatment strategies beyond a certain speciality. However, economic evaluation is only one step within the medical assessment process and does not per se imply the political allocation of financial resources.