CardioExchange Archive

October 14th, 2014

Inappropriate Cardiac Stress Tests May Cost Half a Billion Dollars a Year

Larry Husten, PHD

Inappropriate cardiac stress tests may cost the U.S. healthcare system as much as half a billion dollars each year, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Joseph Ladapo and colleagues set out to analyze long-term trends in the use of cardiac stress testing in the U.S. Using data from national surveys, they found […]

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August 19th, 2013

Look Before Leaping to Conclusions About Bush’s Stent

Ajay J Kirtane, MD, SM

Ajay Kirtane shares his thoughts on the publicity surrounding Bush’s stent and what it means for the public perception of PCI.

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November 8th, 2011

Financial Incentives Increase Use of Stress Tests

Larry Husten, PHD

Following coronary revascularization, patients are more likely to undergo cardiac stress testing if their physician has a financial interest in the test, according to a new study published in JAMA. Bimal Shah and colleagues examined insurance data from 17,847 patients who underwent revascularization, dividing their physicians into three groups: those who billed for technical and professional fees, […]

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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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October 28th, 2010

Drs. Clueless and Apathetic: The State of Imaging Referrals

Shanti Bansal, MD

Editors’ Note: This text has been modified from its original form. Key elements of the case represent a composite of people and events. On a bright Saturday morning, I was the fellow on duty in the chest pain center. That meant I was responsible for evaluating and stress-testing patients who had been admitted from the ER […]

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