Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography Publishes CCTA Guidelines

March 11, 2009 - The Guidelines for the Interpretation and Reporting of Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography report, published by the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT), will be printed in the March/April issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.
The report’s purpose is to establish standardization in the cardiovascular CT community on how to appropriately read, interpret and diagnose CT scans.

The SCCT Writing Group, comprised of ten cardiologists, radiologists and researchers, spent over a year developing the guidelines. Gilbert Raff, M.D., director of the Ministrelli Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI is chair of the SCCT Writing Group and co-chair of the SCCT Guidelines Committee.
“The increasing use of CCTA requires the establishment of standards to ensure reliable practice methods and quality outcomes,” said Dr. Raff. “These recommendations were produced as an educational tool for practitioners to improve the diagnostic care of patients, in the interest of developing systematic standards of practice for CCTA based on the best available data or broad expert consensus.”
Guidelines are not intended to diminish the importance of clinical judgment in evaluating individual patients, nor to include every possible type of patient. Instead, one of their most important uses will be in establishing standards of practice where they currently do not exist.
Two of the society’s most important objectives are to foster optimal clinical effectiveness of CCTA and to ensure its expert and appropriate application. The Guidelines for the Interpretation and Reporting of Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography report was created to aid in fulfilling those goals.
“We hope all cardiologists and radiologists involved in the administration and interpretation of CCTA will strictly adhere to these guidelines in order to ensure its appropriate application and accurate interpretation across the board.” said cardiac imager, Daniel S. Berman, M.D., SCCT president and Chief of Cardiac Imaging and Nuclear Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “Following these guidelines will enable this valuable diagnostic tool to consistently serve in the best interest of the patient.”
For more information, please visit www.scct.org