6.01.2008

Cheaper Chest Pain Screening In Emergency Rooms Offered By New CT Technology

Eight million Americans visit U.S. emergency departments for chest pain each year. Although just five to 15 percent of them are found to be suffering from heart attacks or other cardiac diseases, more than half of these patients are admitted to the hospital for observation and further testing.

Computed tomography angiography (CTA), however, offers a way to more quickly and cost effectively identify patients at low-risk of cardiac problems like the blocked arteries that lead to heart attacks, according to the new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Penn experts will present research findings that could come to define new standards of emergency diagnostics and care at this week's annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the foremost professional society representing physicians who care for acutely ill and injured patients.

Medical News Today

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