Physicians at Duke University Medical Center believe that one has to rethink how patients are chosen for cardiac catheterization. A study apparently found that the invasive procedure did not observe any coronary artery disease in almost 60 percent of chest pain patients with no prior heart disease.
Over 10 million Americans supposedly undergo chest pain every year and many experience testing like cardiac catheterization to find out if obstructed arteries are the problem. It is said to be a general care for people who suffer from heart attack or unsteady chest pain. Apparently, the invasive test is not inexpensive, nor is it devoid of any threat. But it may enable doctors to envisage the vessels and arteries leading to the heart.
Manesh Patel, MD, a cardiologist with the Duke Heart Center, commented, “Our data show that up to two-thirds of the patients undergoing invasive cardiac catheterization do not have significant obstructive disease. We’re spending a lot of energy and money to evaluate chest pain which often leads to cardiac catheterization, which, we now know, often finds that patients don’t have significant obstructive disease. Our research shows that our methods for identifying patients at risk for obstructive disease need significant improvement.”
The chief objective of cardiac catheterization is to apparently recognize the existence, place, and acuteness of coronary atherosclerosis.
Patel mentioned, “This is done with the understanding that some patients with severe obstruction may benefit from angioplasty or bypass surgery to relieve symptoms and to reduce the risk of a heart attack or death.”
The experts supposedly recognized two million people who experienced cardiac catheterization at around 663 hospitals nationwide over a four-year period. Around one fifth of those patients seemed to experience stable chest pain devoid of any preceding detection of heart disease. Majority of them appeared to have gone through a noninvasive test prior to catheterization, but just 38 percent of patients apparently had a considerable obstructive disease.
What is required, Patel emphasizes, is a reassessment of the total decision-making process of caring for patients suffering from chest pain. Patel and other Duke experts are said to be working on numerous endeavors to deal with these concerns. They comprise of national standards on suitable use of technology, and clinical trials to assess diverse non invasive imaging technologies.
The study was published in New England Journal of England.