Abstract
Each year, 11 million patients present in the USA with new symptoms suggestive of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Most undergo stress testing but <10 % demonstrate myocardial ischemia. Moreover, up to 60 % will have CAD which adversely affects outcomes. Cardiac computed tomography (CCT) is being used increasingly as an alternative to stress testing to rule out obstructive CAD in symptomatic patients, and large cohort studies in asymptomatic patients have identified burden of coronary atherosclerosis as a predictor of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). This review article will critically evaluate major clinical studies on the use of CCT in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients and discuss the lessons for the clinical use of CCT.
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Acknowledgments
Udo Hoffmann has received grant support from NIH/NHLBI.
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Sumbal A. Janjua declares no conflict of interest. Udo Hoffmann reports grants from Siemens Healthcare, American College of Radiology Imaging Network, and HeartFlow Inc.
Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent
All studies performed by the authors included in this review have been approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cardiac PET, CT, and MRI
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Janjua, S.A., Hoffmann, U. New Insights from Major Prospective Cohort Studies with Cardiac CT. Curr Cardiol Rep 17, 19 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-015-0571-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-015-0571-2