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CT-Angiography Beats SPECT Perfusion Imaging for Coronary Disease Diagnosis in CORE320

BALTIMORE, MD — Computed-tomography angiography (CTA) is more accurate than nuclear-stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) for the diagnosis of angiography-confirmed coronary artery disease in symptomatic patients, according to the results of a new study[1].
Overall, CTA was more sensitive for detecting coronary artery disease in 391 symptomatic patients participating in the CORE320 study, resulting in “greater overall accuracy,” say investigators. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.91 with CTA vs 0.69 for single-photon-emission CT-acquired MPI (SPECT-MPI), a statistically significant difference (P<0.001).

“CT coronary angiography yielded considerably greater accuracy than SPECT-MPI for establishing or excluding the diagnosis of angiographic coronary artery disease in symptomatic patients defined by the gold standard of cardiac catheterization,” write Dr Armin Arbab-Zadeh (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD) and colleagues October 8, 2015 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. READ MORE