News Release

New CT technology offer roadmap to quicker, cheaper chest pain screening in emergency rooms

Penn studies show CT angiography effectively screens for low-risk patients, reduces testing costs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

(WASHINGTON, DC) – 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.

CTA has been the subject of debate within the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which has yet to make a decision on whether to pay for the test in emergency room settings. Anna Marie Chang, MD, a physician in Penn’s department of Emergency Medicine, and her colleagues studied 568 Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania chest pain patients who were screened for acute coronary syndromes using high-resolution CT scans (CT angiography, or CTA). Negative scans – those showing no evidence of dangerous blockages in the coronary arteries – were found to be an accurate, quick method of identifying patients who are safe to be immediately discharged from the emergency department.

Thirty days after leaving the hospital, no patients in the study group who had negative CTAs died from cardiac related causes, had heart attacks or required the placement of cardiac stents to open blocked arteries. Previous studies, by comparison, have shown that stress testing – the traditional screening method – is associated with a high rate of return emergency room visits and hospital admissions.

Chang will also present findings showing that CTA is the quickest and least expensive way to identify patients at low risk of cardiac problems. Among 643 patients studied – split into groups which received immediate CTA, CTA following time in an observation unit, stress tests or telemetry monitoring following admission to the hospital – costs of care for CTA patients were less than half that of those who received the other tests.

Costs for patients who received immediate CTA in the emergency department averaged about $1,240, while costs of stress testing and telemetry monitoring topped $4,000 for each patient. CTA also helped get low-risk chest pain patients home faster, potentially reducing emergency room crowding – study patients who received immediate CTA were discharged after an average of 8 hours, compared to more than 24 hours for those who received stress tests or were admitted for telemetry monitoring.

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Chang will present her findings at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 29 at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel, 2660 Woodley Rd. NW, Washington, D.C.

Editor’s Note: To arrange on-site or telephone interviews with Chang or any other Penn physicians who will be in attendance, please call 215-200-2313, or email holly.auer@uphs.upenn.edu. All research results are embargoed until the time they are presented during the conference.

PENN Medicine is a $3.5 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Penn's School of Medicine is currently ranked #4 in the nation in U.S.News & World Report's survey of top research-oriented medical schools; and, according to most recent data from the National Institutes of Health, received over $379 million in NIH research funds in the 2006 fiscal year. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals — its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S.News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center — a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice.


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