Cardiac CTs good for low risk chest pain

Using cardiac CT scans on low risk chest pain patients can reduce costs and shorten the length of hospital stays, researchers in Seattle said.

A cardiac CT, or computed tomography, is much less expensive and time consuming than the traditional standard of care workup comprising enzyme tests, nuclear stress testing and electrocardiograms, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, said.

Cardiac CT workups in low risk chest pain patients decreased the length of hospital stays by an average of 20 hours and cost 44 percent less than full standard of care workups, Janet May, the lead author of the study, said in a release Friday.

Cardiac CT also rapidly identifies patients who can safely be discharged quickly, May said in the July issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

More than 6 million people are admitted to U.S. emergency rooms each year with chest pain and as many as 79 percent of those patients fall into the low-risk category, May said.