Coronary CT Imaging can Predict Need for Invasive Heart Catheterization

Beaumont-led research may reduce unnecessary procedures and cost.

Royal Oak, Mich. (PRWEB) February 09, 2012

An important research study, led by Beaumont Health System cardiologists and involving 47 hospitals and outpatient centers in Michigan, may help spare patients from unnecessary invasive heart procedures while lowering health care costs.

The research, published in the Feb. 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that coronary computed tomography angiography, where heart arteries are imaged with a CT scanner, is very effective at identifying obstructive heart disease requiring an invasive heart catheterization procedure. Cardiac stress testing, the standard for diagnostic heart testing, is not effective.

The research was sponsored and funded by Blue Cross/Blue Shield/Blue Care Network of Michigan as part of a statewide quality improvement initiative called the Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging Consortium. Beaumont is the coordinating center for the consortium.

“In this study, we looked at 6,000 patients across the state who had CT imaging after a heart stress test,” says lead author Kavitha Chinnaiyan, M.D., Beaumont’s director of Advanced Cardiac Imaging Education and program director for ACIC. “We concluded that CT imaging works very well as a ‘gatekeeper’ to the catheterization lab, and can help rule out patients who don’t require invasive coronary angiography.”

As many as 10 percent of stress imaging studies are inconclusive, often leading to invasive coronary angiography (also called diagnostic cardiac catheterization), often with negative results. Recent data from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry of 400,000 patients found obstructive coronary artery disease in only a third of those undergoing ICA. Even positive stress tests were only moderately associated with obstructive heart disease. Read full Article