Although a specific test may be more costly, use of the more expensive test may actually reduce total health care expenditures, if it's accuracy is sufficiently high and the test is judiciously applied to the appropriate patient populations. In the current economic environment, it is recognized that charges for a procedure do not necessarily reflect reimbursement for the procedure. For individuals with an intermediate probability of disease, stress PET perfusion imaging is again the least costly means of establishing or refuting the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. For patients with a high pre-test likelihood of disease, proceeding directly to angiography is the least costly option. Figure 4 Cost per patient to establish or refute the diagnosis of coronary artery disease according to the imaging strategy employed and current Medicare reimbursement data.
Coronary angiography is considered the gold standard.
Application of this imaging technique to appropriately selected individuals, followed by early medical or surgical therapy where warranted, appears to be a cost-effective means of addressing the human morbidity and mortality of coronary atherosclerosis. Principles of Positron Emission Tomography. Rb Generator in Clinical PET Studies. Myocardial Perfusion Imaging for the Detection and Evaluation of Coronary Artery Disease. Current Status of the Clinical Applications of Cardiac Positron Emission Tomography.