The American College of Radiology (ACR) has added 19 new and updated topics to its Appropriateness Criteria (ACR AC).
The ACR AC includes 270 diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology topics with more than 1,300 clinical variants covering 4,000 clinical scenarios and 203 patient-friendly summaries, the college noted. The update includes 13 new and six revised topics. All topics include a narrative, evidence table, and literature search summary.
The new topics include the following:
Abdominal Pain – Child
Chest Pain – Child
Chronic Pancreatitis
Demyelinating Diseases
Evaluation of Cardiac Masses
Imaging After Liver Transplant
Ingested or Aspirated Foreign Body – Child
Joint Pain: Idiopathic Arthritis-Child
Preprocedural Chest or Cardiac Imaging for Cardiothoracic Surgery
Staging and Follow-up of Gastric Cancer
Staging and Follow-up of Melanoma
Staging and Follow-up of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
Thoracic Venous Occlusions-Suspected Superior Vena Cava Syndrome
Revised topics include the following:
Breast Implant Evaluation
Chronic Foot Pain
Major Blunt Trauma
Postmenopausal Subacute or Chronic Pelvic Pain
Radiologic Management of Pulmonary Nodules and Masses
Suspected Physical Abuse-Child
The guidelines are developed and reviewed annually by expert panels in diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology. Spanish translations of the ACR AC are now available from Colegio Interamericano de Radiología for 185 topics, with more Spanish versions to be posted on a rolling basis, ACR noted.
