Mel Herbert of EMRAP and Essentials of EM fame – virtually attended the ‘carbon’-neutral‘ section of the recent WA ACEM 2012 conference
Mel delivers another inimitable rant on CTA, chest pain and the ability to discharge low risk patients with chest pain from the ED
#WAACEM12 @melherbert work up for low risk chest pain. Pre April 12 12 substandard!!
@Eleytherius
Michelle Johnston
RT @Eleytherius: #WAACEM12 Amal Mattu says locomotive has well and truly left station. CTA is here to stay.
@scanman
Vijay
@Eleytherius So, what changed low rish CP from 'home w f/u to 'radiate the hell out of 'em? #WAACEM12
@gruntdoc
GruntDoc
#WAACEM12 @melherbert rants on CT angio in low risk chest pain patients http://t.co/MH9JQYLZ
@peterallely
peter allely
About Mike Cadogan
but we “know” it’s the little, not the big, plaques that rupture and cause ACS?
CCTA certainly has promise = it has similar accuracy to stress, with faster throughput time and likely lower radiation. but as dr. herbert touches on, the problem is with specificity. CCTA will find a lot of small plaques, i.e. there will be a lot of “non-negative” studies, that will probably result in further stress tests & PCI. add into that the overtesting that he mentions as well (how many low-risk chest pain patients are going to get CCTAs now?) and we might be shooting ourselves in the foot (or, irradiating our patients in the thyroid)