Survey of current practices of the specialty of physicians interpreting cardiac and noncardiac findings of coronary computed tomographic angiography.

Overview

Computed tomographic angiography, as an imaging modality to evaluate the coronary arteries, has been rapidly expanding since the release of 64-slice machines. Little is known about current practice patterns. This study was conducted to evaluate current practice patterns and views regarding the interpretation of noncardiac findings by distributing a survey to the approximately 800 attendees of the first annual meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography in 2006. Of the 214 returned surveys, 16% were completed by radiologists and 82% by cardiologists. Ninety-nine subjects were experienced readers. At very few centers (9%), cardiologists read the cardiac and noncardiac portions. Few (9%) believed that cardiologists alone adequately interpreted noncardiac findings. Most subjects (72%) in the experienced and novice groups believed that the interpretation of noncardiac findings required input from the radiologists (p = 0.896). In conclusion, most survey respondents believed that radiologists and cardiologists should be involved in interpretation of coronary computed tomographic angiograms. In addition, coronary computed tomographic angiography and computed tomography for lung cancer should not be used as a screening tool, although computed tomography for calcium scoring is a reasonable screening tool.