Diagnosis and screening of coronary artery disease

Abstract

Diagnostic testing for CAD is aided by the calculation of the pretest probability using either the Diamond-Forrester score or the Morise score. Patients who have a low risk of CAD should not undergo testing. Exercise ECG testing should be reserved for patients who have pretest probabilities lower than 20%, because a negative test does not adequately reduce the posttest probability of significant CAD. For patients who are at intermediate risk, either nuclear perfusion imaging or stress echocardiography is an acceptable choice depending on local availability and practice. Due to its low specificity, CAC scoring is currently limited in its usefulness for the diagnosis of CAD in symptomatic patients. Currently, screening for CAD among patients at low risk should not extend beyond screening for traditional risk factors. Physicians should use the Framingham Risk Score to stratify patients into levels of 10-year risk for cardiac events. Due to its high rate of false positive tests and low sensitivity, exercise ECG is of limited value in screening. Among patients with higher levels of risk, in whom further risk stratification would be of use in making decisions about risk factor management, measurement of CAC either with EBCT or multidetector row CT scanning is a promising option, but more research is required before its use should become widespread. Measures of endothelial function are in development but lack data to support their widespread use currently.