BACKGROUND: The absence of radiological evidence of plaque on computed tomographic coronary angiography (CTCA) reliably excludes obstructive coronary artery disease. METHODS: We studied patients who presented to our emergency department with chest pain and were admitted to our chest pain assessment service. If they were free of pain and without high-risk features of myocardial ischaemia including elevation of serum biomarkers they underwent CTCA and performed a standard treadmill exercise test. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients aged 56.3+/-8.6 years were admitted. Eleven of them had selective angiography; CTCA identified all who had obstructive disease. More than half of the 85 patients who had normal values of cardiac troponin and of the 75 with a negative exercise test had radiological evidence of disease. During follow-up for 355+/-72 days none died, suffered myocardial infarction or required coronary artery surgery: two with obstructive disease underwent percutaneous coronary intervention 1 and 7 days after the index study. CONCLUSIONS: The CTCA findings were significantly correlated with those of selective angiography and with troponin status and increased the ascertainment of coronary artery disease in a cohort of patients at low risk for clinically significant ischaemic heart disease. Crown Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
BACKGROUND: The absence of radiological evidence of plaque on computed tomographic coronary angiography (CTCA) reliably excludes obstructive coronary artery disease. METHODS: We studied patients who presented to our emergency department with chest pain and were admitted to our chest pain assessment service. If they were free of pain and without high-risk features of myocardial ischaemia including elevation of serum biomarkers they underwent CTCA and performed a standard treadmill exercise test. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients aged 56.3+/-8.6 years were admitted. Eleven of them had selective angiography; CTCA identified all who had obstructive disease. More than half of the 85 patients who had normal values of cardiac troponin and of the 75 with a negative exercise test had radiological evidence of disease. During follow-up for 355+/-72 days none died, suffered myocardial infarction or required coronary artery surgery: two with obstructive disease underwent percutaneous coronary intervention 1 and 7 days after the index study. CONCLUSIONS: The CTCA findings were significantly correlated with those of selective angiography and with troponin status and increased the ascertainment of coronary artery disease in a cohort of patients at low risk for clinically significant ischaemic heart disease. Crown Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors: Maros Ferencik; Christopher L Schlett; Fabian Bamberg; Quynh A Truong; John H Nichols; Antonio J Pena; Michael D Shapiro; Ian S Rogers; Sujith Seneviratne; Blair Alden Parry; Ricardo C Cury; Thomas J Brady; David F Brown; John T Nagurney; Udo Hoffmann Journal: Acad Emerg Med Date: 2012-07-31 Impact factor: 3.451