Apr 1, 2022 This Week in Cardiology Podcast

Please note that the text below is not a full transcript and has not been copyedited. For more insight and commentary on these stories, subscribe to the This Week in Cardiology podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast provider. This podcast is intended for healthcare professionals only.

In This Week’s Podcast

For the week ending April 1, 2022, John Mandrola, MD comments on the following news and features stories.

Listener Feedback on Coronary CT Imaging

A practicing non-invasive general cardiologist from the United States wrote to me, saying he is a loyal listener and self-described medical conservative. But he had serious criticism of my “generally negative approach to cardiac computed tomography (CT).”

“Every time a positive cardiac CT trial comes out you tend to focus on the negative aspects of it and forget to include the positive outcomes.”

He listed a number of ways that CT angiography (CTA) helps him. Among them:

• CTA is a good test for reassurance—akin to an electrophysiologist (EP) ordering a cardiac monitor for benign palpitations. When it’s normal, anxious people with atypical chest pain can become less anxious.

Then he listed the advantages of CTA over stress testing:

• CTA can identify left main disease.

• CTA can put the brakes on revascularization.