The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) has released guidelines detailing standards of practice for coronary CT angiography (CCTA) in patients presenting to emergency departments with acute chest pain.
The new guidance standardizes care for these patients, the SCCT said.
"We've finally passed the inflection point where coronary CTA can be considered the new 'standard of care' for acute chest pain triage in patients with low-to-intermediate risk for acute coronary syndrome," said Dr. Christopher Maroules, lead author of the guidelines.
The guidelines were published September 28 in the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, and they are endorsed by the ACR and the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging.
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
