Coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores of zero don’t give patients a pass from obstructive coronary artery disease, according to a study using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) on patients with symptoms of coronary artery disease.
Coronary artery calcification (CAC) scores of zero don’t give patients a pass from obstructive coronary artery disease, according to a study using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) on patients with symptoms of coronary artery disease.
What’s more, CAC scores shed no light beyond what was already clear from CCTA results, according to the report, published Nov. 9 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Todd C. Villines, MD, of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, led a multi-center study of 10,037 symptomatic patients (56 percent men; average age 57) without CAD. Each underwent CCTA as well as CAC scoring.
Among patients with a CAC score of zero, 84 percent had no CAD, 13 percent had nonobstructive stenosis, and 3.5 percent had stenosis of 50 percent or more on CCTA.
During an average follow-up of 2.1 years, there was no difference in mortality among patients with a CAC score of zero regardless of the presence of CAD. Among 8,907 patients, 3.9 percent of the patients with a CAC score of zero and greater-than 50 percent stenosis experienced an event, compared with 0.8 percent of patients with a CAC score of zero and no obstructive CAD. Receiver-operator characteristic curve analysis showed that the CAC score did not add incremental prognostic information compared with CAD extent on CCTA.
Study Reveals Benefits of Photon-Counting CT for Assessing Acute Pulmonary Embolism
April 23rd 2024In comparison to energy-integrating detector CT for the workup of suspected acute pulmonary embolism, the use of photon-counting detector CT reduced radiation dosing by 48 percent, according to newly published research.
The Reading Room: Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Cancer Screenings, and COVID-19
November 3rd 2020In this podcast episode, Dr. Shalom Kalnicki, from Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the disparities minority patients face with cancer screenings and what can be done to increase access during the pandemic.
AI Adjudication Bolsters Chest CT Assessment of Lung Adenocarcinoma
April 11th 2024The inclusion of simulated adjudication for resolving discordant nodule classifications in a deep learning model for assessing lung adenocarcinoma on chest CT resulted in a 12 percent increase in sensitivity rate.