SCCT guidelines on the use of coronary computed tomographic angiography for patients presenting with acute chest pain to the emergency department: A Report of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography Guidelines Committee

Coronary computed tomography angiography (coronary CTA) is a viable alternative to functional imaging in the assessment of patients presenting with acute chest pain (ACP) to the emergency department (ED). The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography Guidelines Committee was formed to develop recommendations for acquiring, interpreting, and reporting of cardiovascular CT to ensure adequate, safe, and efficient use of this modality. Because of the increasing extension of coronary CTA testing for the evaluation of ACP patients, the Committee has been charged with the development of the present document to assist physicians and technologists. These recommendations were produced as an educational tool for practitioners to improve the diagnostic care of patients presenting with ACP to the ED, in the interest of developing systematic standards of practice for coronary CTA based on the best available data or broad expert consensus. Because of the highly variable nature of medical care, and individual and unique patient presentations and circumstances, approaches to patient selection, preparation, protocol selection, interpretation, or reporting that differ from these guidelines may represent an appropriate variation based on a legitimate assessment of an individual patient\u27s needs. The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography Guidelines Committee makes every effort to avoid any actual or potential conflicts of interest that might arise as a result of an outside relationship or a personal interest of a member of the Guidelines Committee or its Writing Groups. Specifically, all members of both the Guidelines Committee and of Writing Committees are asked to provide disclosure statements of all such relationships that might be perceived as real or potential conflicts of interest relevant to the document topic. The relationships with industry information for Writing Group and Committee members are available in the acknowledgments section of this document. These are reviewed by the Guidelines Committee and will be updated as changes occur