SCCT Issues New Guidance on Care for Acute Chest Pain in the Emergency Department

September 29, 2022—The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) announced the publication of an expert consensus document detailing standards of practice for coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) use for patients presenting with acute chest pain (ACP) to the emergency department. The document is endorsed by the American College of Radiology and the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging.

According to SCCT, the document outlines the benefits of CCTA as the first-line test for ACP and provides recommendations for appropriate patient selection, preparation, protocol selection, interpretation, reporting, and patient management based on clinical evidence and expert consensus.

The document by the Writing Committee of Christopher D. Maroules, MD, et al is available online ahead of print in JCCT, the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

“This document serves as a framework for hospitals and emergency departments looking to implement and expand their CCTA programs,” commented Dr. Maroules in the SCCT press release. “With the detailed operational guidelines and best practices outlined in this document, physicians and administrators will be equipped to leverage the maximum value of this pathway, improving health outcomes for their patients, decompressing busy emergency rooms, and lowering health care costs.”

In the SCCT press release, Dr. Maroules advised that the guidance is supported by data from eight randomized controlled trials and five meta-analyses validating the utility of CCTA in the emergency department. He further noted that CCTA is now a recognized frontline test for ACP triage, endorsed with the highest possible rating (Class I, Level of Evidence A) in the 2021 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Guideline for the Evaluation and Diagnosis of Chest Pain, which was released in October 2021 and published by guideline writing committee Chair Martha Gulati, MD, et al in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation.

“We’ve finally passed the inflection point where CCTA can be considered the new ‘standard of care’ for ACP triage in patients with low-to-intermediate risk for acute coronary syndrome,” concluded Dr. Maroules.