Implications of three different testing strategies in the diagnostic approach to patients with stable chest pain and low pretest probability of obstructive coronary artery disease

Copyright © 2023 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..

INTRODUCTION: The clinical implications of a widespread adoption of guideline recommendations for patients with stable chest pain and low pretest probability (PTP) of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) remain unclear. We aimed to assess the results of three different testing strategies in this subgroup of patients: A) defer testing; B) perform coronary artery calcium score (CACS), withholding further testing if CACS ​= ​0 and proceeding to coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) if CACS>0; C) perform CCTA in all.

METHODS: Two-center cross-sectional study assessing 1328 symptomatic patients undergoing CACS and CCTA for suspected CAD. PTP was calculated based on age, sex and symptom typicality. Obstructive CAD was defined as any luminal stenosis ≥50% on CCTA.

RESULTS: The prevalence of obstructive CAD was 8.6% (n ​= ​114). In the 786 patients (56.8%) with CACS ​= ​0, 8.5% (n ​= ​67) had some degree of CAD [1.9% (n ​= ​15) obstructive, and 6.6% (n ​= ​52) nonobstructive]. Among those with CACS>0 (n ​= ​542), 18.3% (n ​= ​99) had obstructive CAD. The number of patients needed to scan (NNS) to identify one patient with obstructive CAD was 13 for strategy B vs. A, and 91 for strategy C vs. B.

CONCLUSIONS: Using CACS as gatekeeper would decrease CCTA use by more than 50%, at the cost of missing obstructive CAD in one in 100 patients. These findings may help inform decisions on testing, which will ultimately depend on the willingness to accept some diagnostic uncertainty.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:17

Enthalten in:

Journal of cardiovascular computed tomography - 17(2023), 4 vom: 23. Juli, Seite 248-253

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Lopes, Pedro M [VerfasserIn]
Ferreira, António M [VerfasserIn]
Albuquerque, Francisco [VerfasserIn]
Freitas, Pedro [VerfasserIn]
de Araújo Gonçalves, Pedro [VerfasserIn]
Presume, João [VerfasserIn]
Abecasis, João [VerfasserIn]
Guerreiro, Sara [VerfasserIn]
Santos, Ana Coutinho [VerfasserIn]
Saraiva, Carla [VerfasserIn]
Mendes, Miguel [VerfasserIn]
Marques, Hugo [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Coronary artery calcium score
Coronary artery disease
Coronary computed tomography angiography
Gatekeeper
Journal Article
Low pretest probability

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 02.11.2023

Date Revised 02.11.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.jcct.2023.06.001

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM35810064X