CardioExchange Archive

August 28th, 2011

Anatomical vs. Physiological Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease

Stephen Fleet, MD

Just as the great voleur Willie Sutton robbed banks because “that’s where the money is,” why don’t we just look for coronary artery disease (CAD) directly in the coronary arteries? At the ESC meeting today in Paris, Bharati Shivalkar of Belgium reviewed the assessment of CAD utilizing coronary CT angiography (anatomical)  vs. the usual standard of care, stress […]

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May 23rd, 2011

What Is the Impact of Screening Low-Risk Patients with CT Angiography?

Larry Husten, PHD

In a study published online in Archives of Internal Medicine, John McEvoy and colleagues examine the impact of screening low-risk patients with coronary CT angiography (CCTA). They compared 1000 South Korean patients who underwent CCTA with 1000 matched controls. CCTA identified 215 people with coronary atherosclerosis. At 90 days and at 18 months, statins and aspirin […]

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December 13th, 2010

False-Positive CT Angiogram Leads to Heart Transplant

Larry Husten, PHD

A 52-year old woman with atypical chest pain ended up with a heart transplant after a CT angiogram to “reassure” her sparked a devastating sequence of events. Following a false-positive CT angiogram, the patient underwent coronary angiography and suffered a dissection of the left main coronary artery, followed by emergency CABG, subsequent graft failure, and […]

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October 26th, 2010

Updated Appropriate Use Criteria for Cardiac CT Published

Larry Husten, PHD

An alphabet soup of medical organizations (ACCF, SCCT, ACR, AHA, ASE, etc.) have updated their appropriate use criteria for cardiac CT. The lengthy document includes an evaluation of 93 clinical scenarios and finds that cardiac CT is appropriate in 38% of them. Use of cardiac CT in the rest of the scenarios is deemed inappropriate […]

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