What is the committee's concern about the low proportion of HF-REF patients identified in the study?
The committee raised concern about the low proportion of HF-REF patients identified in the study, as they feared this may bias the model results. They acknowledged that the proportion of HF-REF patients in the heart failure population seems to be gradually declining, but still considered the proportion of HF-REF patients in the study to be low. They were concerned that this may lead to a lower NT-proBNP threshold, which would mean that there would be less clinical benefit to diagnosing heart failure due to the delay in treatment for high risk patients. As a result, two scenario analyses were undertaken to assess the diagnostic accuracy data and from two other study populations included in the clinical review.