2007-09-04 23:37:49 · 4 answers · asked by Badius 1 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Heart Diseases
It's a little weird that the person claiming to be a doctor seems to be answering a completely different question than the one you asked, Badius, but I will try to clear things up.
Loving_Heart's answer is in reference to bile duct disease and not coronary disease. It's hard for anyone to say that coronary CT angiogram is "better" or "more reliable" than traditional coronary angiography because the studies that have been published almost universally use traditional coronary angiography as the "gold standard". The accuracy of coronary CT is therefore usually given in reference to coronary angiography.
The studies that have been published suggest that 64-slice CT has a sensitivity of 93-100%, specificity of 90-95%, and positive and negative predictive values of 75-85% and 95-100%, respectively, for detecting significant coronary stenoses. In other words, CT angiography is a pretty good test and will probably get better. Right now, it is a little better at telling us who DOESN'T have coronary disease than who does, and it is much less helpful in people who have stents or bypasses.
2007-09-06 02:50:11 · answer #1 · answered by James C 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
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2016-05-17 10:31:37 · answer #2 · answered by Sandy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. An invasive coronary angiogram is the gold standard for visualizing the coronary vessels.
The picture of a CT angio is often obscured by artefact caused by calcium in the vessels, by chest movement of the patients, etc. Current data has proven that the reproducibility of the invasive angio is definitely more than that of the CT angio.
That said, if a patient of mine had low probability of coronary heart disease but complains of cardiac sounding chest pains with a normal ECG/stress test, I would be hard pressed to send him for an invasive angio and would opt instead for a CT angio.
Each has its place in clinical management of people with heart disease.
2007-09-08 03:48:25 · answer #3 · answered by stressdout 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Invasive is the best solution as in case of bile duct the obstruction cannot be seen on Sonogram, so a probe is passed to check its patency.
This question was Put up in FRCS and many candidates flunked all ticked Sonogram.
2007-09-05 09:45:24 · answer #4 · answered by Dr.Qutub 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋