s used in coronary angiography referrals.
The study examined records of patients who underwent elective catheterisation without known coronary artery disease (CAD) or prior intervention, patients with the most uncertainty. The findings revealed only 38 percent of the nearly of those that participated in noninvasive testing in the study had CAD.
While this hints to faults in the pre-screening, the researchers highlight that when non-invasive testing suggested the presence of CAD, patients were much more likely to have the disease. Close to 400,000 patient records were used in the study from 63 hospitals. Of the total, 83.9 percent participated in noninvasive testing, and from this almost 70 percent suggested the presence of CAD.
The disparity does not suggest too many angiographies are being administered. Researchers found that 30 percent of patients had CAD even after no symptoms and negative results from the pre-screening.
The answer is finding better application of current methods in patient examinations and screening technologies as well as finding new tools to detect coronary artery disease.
