Contact: Rachel Cagan, rcagan@acc.org, 202-375-6395

WASHINGTON (Jan 22, 2016) -

New recommendations from the American College of Cardiology and American College of Radiology have established appropriate use of diagnostic imaging for patients with chest pain, one of the most common reasons for emergency department visits.

The document addresses 20 fundamental clinical scenarios for emergency imaging for chest pain and assesses when imaging is useful in each case, and if so, what information is provided by the specified imaging procedure. The clinical scenarios are broken down into leading critical diagnoses: acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism and acute aortic syndrome. There is a fourth category, triple rule out computerized tomography (CT), for the minority of patients for whom a leading diagnosis is not possible.

Using the well-established modified Rand methodology, an expert panel rated each of the diagnostic procedures for the 20 clinical scenarios on a scale from 1 to 9. Each procedure has a corresponding rating of “rarely appropriate,” “may be appropriate” or “appropriate.”

“This document captures a wide scope of those patients who come to the emergency department with chest pain, although there will always be patients who present unique situations and no document can be a substitute for clinical judgment,” said Frank J. Rybicki, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the department of radiology at the University of Ottawa, head of medical imaging at The Ottawa Hospital and co-chair of the writing committee.

The authors explain that the concept of appropriateness assesses the risks and benefits of a treatment, test or procedure and that these criteria provide imaging guidance to inform the clinician’s judgment.

The paper will published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

About the American College of Cardiology

The American College of Cardiology is a 49,000-member medical society that is the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team. The mission of the College is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College operates national registries to measure and improve care, provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications. 

About the American College of Radiology
The American College of Radiology (ACR), founded in 1924, is a professional medical society dedicated to serving patients and society by empowering radiology professionals to advance the practice, science and professions of radiological care.

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