Does it replace a Thallium Test or a PET Scan or an Angiogram?
No. The primary use of CASC is as an inexpensive screening procedure for asymptomatic individuals. These other tests are all invasive in nature and much more expensive than this test. CASC is often used to determine if a patient should be subjected to such a procedure. In fact, in a 1994 article which appeared in the journal Radiology, researchers from the National Institutes of Health recommended that CASC be performed in any patient for whom an angiogram is being considered. The reason for this is simple – approximately 25% of all angiograms turn out to be normal. This means there are hundreds of thousands of patients each year in the United States alone with “normal” coronary arteries who are subjected to an expensive, uncomfortable procedure which carries with it the risk (albeit small) of stroke, heart attack or death. In many of these cases, having a CASC first would demonstrate that there is no real need to have an angiogram.
