CT angiography and stress tests can predict heart attacks

Invasive angiography unnecessary?

Noninvasive CT angiography and CT myocardial stress perfusion imaging can adequately predict heart attacks and major adverse cardiovascular events, according to a study published yesterday in Radiologyno invasive coronary angiography (ICA) required.

Invasive coronary angiography (ICA), along with stress tests and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) imaging, has long been the "gold standard" for making determinations of whether a lesion is hemodynamically significant and likely to result in major adverse cardiovascular events, reads a Radiological Society of North America press release.

But this "gold standard" has its drawbacks—in costs and risk.

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Broader CMR or SPECT imaging reduces unnecessary angiography

Results from the CE-MARC 2 trial, announced today at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, suggest that unnecessary angiography could be significantly reduced by favoring noninvasive cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to initially investigate patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD).

These findings could have an "important impact on referral rates for invasive coronary angiography," says the ESC press release.

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