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Practicality, safety and accuracy of computed tomography coronary angiography in the evaluation of low TIMI‐risk score chest pain patients: A pilot study
Author(s) -
Soon Kean H,
Kelly AnneMaree,
Cox Nicholas,
MacGregor Lachlan,
Chaitowitz Ivan,
Bell Kevin,
Lim Yean
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/j.1742-6723.2006.00917.x
Subject(s) - medicine , timi , chest pain , myocardial infarction , confidence interval , thrombolysis , radiology , coronary artery disease , observational study , angiography , acute coronary syndrome
Objectives: The present pilot study aimed to assess the practicality, safety and accuracy of performing CT coronary angiography (CT‐CA) in the evaluation of acute chest pain of patients with low thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) risk scores. Methods: The present prospective observational study was undertaken in a university teaching hospital between November 2004 and December 2005. Participants were a convenience sample of patients admitted to hospital for investigation of chest pain with TIMI risk scores <3. Consenting patients underwent CT‐CA within 48 h of presentation. Outcomes of interest were practicality (proportion of diagnostic quality scans obtained and preparation time for CT‐CA), rate of serious adverse events, and accuracy at the patient level using selective coronary angiography as the reference standard. Results: Thirty‐four patients were recruited. Diagnostic quality scans were obtained in 26/34 or 76% of patients (four failed CT‐CA and four non‐diagnostic scans). The median CT preparation time was 1.9 h (range 0.17–4.0). No serious adverse events were found. Fourteen of those 26 patients with diagnostic CT‐CA subsequently had selective coronary angiography, of which nine were positive. The sensitivity and specificity of CT‐CA in identifying patients with significant coronary artery disease were 9/9 (100%; 95% confidence interval 72–100%) and 4/5 (80%; 95% confidence interval 28–100%), respectively. Conclusions: The majority of acute chest pain patients with low TIMI risk scores were successfully scanned with a 16‐slice CT to produce CT‐CA studies with good diagnostic quality and accuracy. No major adverse events were found. The place of CT‐CA in diagnostic workup for chest pain remains to be defined.