When it first appeared more than a decade ago computed tomographic angiography (CTA) astounded cardiologists and other physicians. Until it came along the only way to check for blockages in the vital coronary arteries that supply the heart itself with blood was with cardiac catheterization, an expensive, highly invasive and unpleasant procedure. In the following years CTA (the devices are manufactured by GE, Siemens, Toshiba, Philips and others) enjoyed an explosion of growth, fueled by enthusiasm for its ability to deliver speedy, high-resolution images of the coronary arteries. Many anticipated that CTA would prove its worth and justify its expense and radiation dose. As explained by one cardiologist, Duke University’s Dan Mark, with CTA “only the patients who needed revascularization would actually go to the cath lab and the rest would avoid it,” leading to a reduced use of invasive tests, fewer unnecessary revascularizations, fewer false positives, and, therefore, significant economic advantages. Many years later, however, there is still little agreement about CTA and how it should be used in the diagnosis and management of people with chest pain.
Results of the NHLBI-supported Prospective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of Chest Pain (PROMISE), presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine, provide the best evidence yet for the evaluation of CTA.
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