Rcadia Medical Imaging presented five studies demonstrating the potential of its COR Analyser System to assist in ruling out significant coronary artery stenosis (narrowing) in patients at low to intermediate risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing coronary computer tomography (cCTA). The ability to rule out disease and speed clinical decision making has great potential to reduce unneeded hospital costs, as well as improve patient care by allowing clinicians to focus on high priority patients.
“The growth of cCTA as a non-invasive method to evaluate suspected CAD patients has created a need to efficiently interpret the large volume cCTA images to better manage patient care in the Emergency Department (ED) and in radiology and cardiology departments,” said Shai Levanon, Rcadia president and CEO. “These data are part of a large and growing number of studies that support the use of the COR Analyser as a powerful, complementary decision making tool for clinicians to prioritise cCTA studies, accelerate interpretation time, and provide confidence in ruling out suspected CAD patients.”
Triage of suspected CAD patients represents a major clinical and healthcare economic challenge in the United States, as an estimated six million patients use the hospital emergency department each year with chest pain. Under the current diagnostic techniques, low and moderate risk patients are admitted to the hospital for further testing at an annual cost of $10-$13 billion. In an estimated 85% of these patients, an acute coronary event is subsequently ruled out.
The COR Analyser software interprets cCTA images in real time – with no human interaction – to provide an immediate indication of whether a patient has significant (50% or greater) stenosis. One study, led by researchers at Stony Brook University Medical Centre in New York, evaluated cCTA studies with the COR Analyser from 341 patients from low, intermediate and high prevalence populations. It showed that more than 97% of patients examined did not have significant stenosis. “The results suggest that [the COR Analyser] can be used in clinical practice to facilitate the accurate detection and exclusion of CAD on 64-slice and over CT scanners,” said Michael Poon, director of the centre’s Advanced Cardiac Imaging Unit, Department of Radiology.
