Computerized Scan Detects Heart Disease ( And prevents unnecessary testing hosp...)

Computerized Scan Detects Heart Disease

Date:4/28/2009

And prevents unnecessary testing, hospitalization, study shows

TUESDAY, April 28 (HealthDay News) -- A computerized chest scan successfully singles out those people coming into emergency rooms with chest pains who have serious heart disease, a new study indicates.

Of the 368 people in the study, computed tomography angiography (CTA) was 100 percent effective in identifying the 31 who actually had acute coronary syndrome, according to a report in the April 28 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. None of the people who were cleared by the scans had a coronary event in the following six months.

"The study really shows that in this population, CTA is useful and would be good to tremendously improve triage of these patients," said study author Dr. Udo Hoffman, an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Triage -- identifying who needs immediate care and who doesn't -- is of increasing importance as hospitals try to cut medical costs. Many people who come to emergency rooms with chest pains now undergo a series of tests, often being hospitalized. Even though CTA is expensive, at about $1,500 a test, it could save money by eliminating unnecessary hospitalization.

The people in the study were at relatively high risk of coronary disease. Yet the CTA scan, which gives a 64-slice image of the heart, found that most of them did not require immediate hospitalization and further testing.

The case for using CTA for triage in suspected heart disease is not completed, Hoffman said. "The next step is a randomized trial," he said. "We have to look at physician behavior, how physicians will adopt this technology."

But, he added, "I think in places where there is a lot of expertise, there may be enough evidence to use it."

That certainly is true at the University of Pennsylvania, said Dr. Judd Hollander, clinica
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