title: Imaging for cardiac disease: a practical guide for general practitioners.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cardiac disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Australia. There are many differentials to the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). A wide range of radiological investigations are available to help diagnose cardiac conditions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article seeks to provide an up-to-date pathway to diagnose CAD using the least invasive and most widely available investigations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A significant number of patients presenting with chest pain have diagnostic features of CAD and these require little further study. The equivocal group will require risk stratification, generally through a stress-type examination such as nuclear myocardial perfusion study or stress echocardiography. After stratification, further triaging of those at low and intermediate risk will benefit from non-invasive computed tomography coronary angiography. This is a low-risk, high-specificity study performed as an outpatient procedure. The role of the triple rule out study is not yet established but may change the clinical approach in diagnosing the causes of chest pain in future. At this stage, MRI is not viable in terms of availability and duration of study.
authors.affiliation: MBBS, FRANZCR, Director of Imaging, Queensland X-Ray, St Vincent's and St Andrew's Hospitals, Toowoomba, QLD.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Storey
mesh_terms: D057791:Cardiac Imaging Techniques; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000209:etiology; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress; D058006:General Practice; D006801:Humans; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014218:Triage