Risk assessment of patients with known or suspected CAD using stress myocardial perfusion SPECT. Part I: The ongoing evolution of clinical evidence.
In this era of cost containment and evidence-based medicine, validation of a test's diagnostic ability may be only the beginning step to its acceptance and use. In the imaging world, a test gains cost-effectiveness points if it not only is an independent predictor of outcomes, but also adds prognostic information to pretest data. If the test can be used to risk-stratify patients, its value is further enhanced. This review discusses how one of the newer imaging techniques, single-photon emission CT, ranks with regard to the risk assessment of patients with coronary artery disease.
Hachamovitch
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St. Francis Hospital, Roslyn, NY, USA.
D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005080:Exercise Test; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon