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  • Commentary on the FASTTRACK CABG study

    Significant advances in cardiovascular computed tomography (CCTA) technology and the release of outcome data permitted the elaboration of guidelines encouraging the use of CCTA. Based on large trials, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed tomography (SCCT) currently recommends CCTA as the first line test when considering evaluation for revascularization strategies  . It also deemed it appropriate to perform CCTA for the evaluation of coronary arteries prior to non-coronary cardiac surgery as an equivalent alternative to invasive angiography in selected patients, namely, low-intermediate probability, younger patients with primarily non-degenerative valvular conditions as well as to visualize grafts and other structures prior to re-do cardiac surgery. Adding fractional flow reserve derived from coronary CT angiography (FFR CT ) to CTA increases the specificity, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of the test  . However, to date the guidelines and the cardiac surgery community have been reluctant to apply CCTA for the routine evaluation of patients prior to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

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