Among patients with chest pain, it is unclear if anatomic assessment of coronary obstruction or functional assessment with stress testing leads to better patient outcomes. In this randomized controlled trial of 10,003 symptomatic patients, individuals were randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to either anatomical testing with coronary CT angiography (CTA) or to functional testing […]
Tag: Cardiac CT
Coronary Artery Disease Screening Using CT Angiography Lacks Benefit
Although prior studies of screening for coronary artery disease (CAD) in high-risk patients have failed to demonstrate benefit, screening with cardiac coronary computed tomography (CCTA) may hold promise by providing more detail on the extent of coronary atherosclerosis. This trial randomized 900 patients with a 3 to 5 years history of type 1 or 2 […]
CARDIA – Abdominal obesity and coronary artery calcium
Over the past three decades, obesity rates for adults have doubled and rates for adolescents have tripled. Therefore, younger people are experiencing a greater cumulative exposure to excess adiposity over their lifetime, however the long-term effects of this have been poorly studied to date. In particular, abdominal obesity is known to cause the development of […]
Novel risk markers – CT looks strong
The primary prevention of cardiovascular disease involves classifying individuals according to their global cardiovascular risk. However, those at intermediate risk represent a particular challenge; while some may require aggressive treatment, others may be best managed by lifestyle measures alone. Biomarkers that have shown promise in improving risk discrimination include carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), coronary artery […]
64-slice CT unable to out-perform coronary angiography
Previous studies comparing CT coronary angiography with the current gold standard of coronary angiography have been limited by single-centre design and inherent bias in small studies. This multi-centre, international study, CORE 64 (Coronary Artery Evaluation Using 64-Row Multidetector Computed Tomography Angiography) used central blinded analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of MDCT angiography involving 64 slice […]