MRI Evaluation of Chest Pain

Launched by NATIONAL HEART, LUNG, AND BLOOD INSTITUTE (NHLBI) · Jan 18, 2000

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States and results in high diagnostic and therapeutic costs. The overall costs associated with the care of patients with cardiovascular disease is projected to be $286.5 billion. Although MRI is a relatively expensive technology, this methodology can provide all the noninvasive diagnostic testing necessary to evaluate and triage patients with coronary artery disease. This "one stop shop" has the potential to lower overall testing on this important patient population and better delineate which patients require intervent...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• INCLUSION CRITERIA:
• • Ages above age 21 (children are excluded because myocardial infarction is so rare in this population that the pre-test probability is comparable to the patients with less than 30 minutes of symptoms. Both of these groups have too small a fraction of true positive events to benefit from testing with a sensitivity and specificity of approximately 0.85. If initial results are better, we will reexamine the suitability of these tests for low risk populations).
• • Capable of giving informed consent.
• • 30 minutes of chest pain compatible with myocardial ischemia (chest pain score greater than 4).
• • Less than 270 pounds.
• EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
• Medical exclusions:
• • Patient states she may be pregnant (confirmed by urine or blood testing).
• • Severe congestive heart failure (unable to lie flat in bed).
• • Subjects on a mechanical ventilator.
• MRI exclusions:
• • Subjects with a cardiac pacemaker or implantable defibrillator.
• • Subjects with a cerebral aneurysm clip.
• • Subjects with a neural stimulator (e.g. TENS-Unit).
• • Subjects with any type of ear implant.
• • Subjects with metal in eye (e.g. from machining).
• • Subjects with implanted devices (e.g. insulin pump, drug infusion device).