Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in the industrialized world often take for granted the lifesaving power of medical imaging. Surrounded by advanced technology, our biggest problem seems to be that we use it too much.
Contrast that to the situation in Africa, where even the smallest piece of imaging equipment has the potential to radically change the practice of medicine. Canadian radiologist Dr. Josée Sarrazin discovered this for herself in 2009, when she spent a year in Malawi with her husband and three children.
With only one permanent radiologist for 14 million people, Malawi has an urgent need for both radiologists and imaging equipment, as Dr. Sarrazin soon discovered. She shares many of her experiences in an article you can read by clicking here in our Ultrasound Digital Community.
Coronary CT falls short in low-risk patients
Back in the developed world, coronary CT angiography (CTA) is one of the technologies that we're still trying to figure out how to use most cost-effectively. A new study indicates that it might not be best utilized in patients at low risk of cardiac events.
At team from the U.S. and South Korea tested the use of a diagnostic algorithm that called for coronary CTA studies for screening asymptomatic patients, and compared its impact on physician prescribing practices and downstream testing to a cohort that wasn't scanned.
On the plus side, the use of coronary CTA scans led to more medications being prescribed -- that is, more patients got statins to help prevent future cardiac events. However, the increased recommendations for secondary tests and revascularization procedures were more troubling considering that all patients were asymptomatic. The results are largely in line with other studies that indicate that coronary CTA is more effective in patients at intermediate risk of cardiac events.
Learn more by clicking here, or visit our CT Digital Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
