The Effects of Anti-Hypertensive Drugs Evaluated Using Markov Modelling for Northern Ireland Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

The aim of this paper is to use Markov modelling to investigate survival for particular types of kidney patients in relation to their exposure to anti-hypertensive treatment drugs. In order to monitor kidney function an intuitive three point assessment is proposed through the collection of blood samples in relation to chronic kidney disease for Northern Ireland patients. A five state Markov model was devised using specific transition probabilities for males and females over all age groups. These transition probabilities were then adjusted appropriately using relative risk scores for the event death for different subgroups of patients. The model was built using TreeAge software package in order to explore the effects of anti-hypertensive drugs on patients.