Title
A Markov decision process model to guide treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms
Abstract
An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an enlargement of the abdominal aorta which, if left untreated, can progressively widen and may rupture with fatal consequences. In this paper, we determine an optimal treatment policy using Markov decision process modeling. The policy is optimal with respect to the number of quality adjusted life-years (QALYs) that are expected to be accumulated during the remaining life of a patient. The new policy takes into account factors that are ignored by the current clinical policy (e.g. the life-expectancy and the age-dependent surgical mortality). The resulting optimal policy is structurally different from the current policy. In particular, the policy suggests that young patients with small aneurysms should undergo surgery. The robustness of the policy structure is demonstrated using simulations. A gain in the number of expected QALYs is shown, which indicates a possibility of improved care for patients with AAAs.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/CCA.2016.7587869
2016 IEEE Conference on Control Applications (CCA)
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA),biosystems,decision making,Markov decision process (MDP),public healthcare,treatment policy
Journal
abs/1611.02177
ISSN
ISBN
Citations 
1085-1992
978-1-5090-0756-1
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
3
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Robert Mattila143.51
Antti Siika200.34
Joy Roy300.34
Bo Wahlberg421040.68