FRIDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- An advanced digital electronic stethoscope that detects coronary artery microbruits showed high sensitivity and specificity in detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) when compared to computed tomographic (CT) angiography, according to research published in March 15 issue in The American Journal of Cardiology.
Amgad N. Makaryus, M.D., of North Shore-LIJ Health System in East Meadow, N.Y., and colleagues conducted a prospective, single-center study to determine the accuracy of the Cardiac Sonospectrographic Analyzer (CSA), a digital electronic stethoscope, in diagnosing CAD compared to CT angiography.
According to the researchers, a total of 161 patients had evaluable CSA and CT angiography examinations. The overall sensitivity and specificity of CSA to predict CAD, defined as greater than 50 percent stenosis in any major epicardial coronary artery, was 89.5 percent and 57.5 percent, respectively (P = 0.0007).
"On the basis of our findings in the present study, the SonoMedica CSA is an ideal tool that can serve either as a stand-alone or complementary technique in the analysis of patients being evaluated for CAD," the authors write. "Application of this relatively cost-effective (compared to cardiac imaging modalities) and efficient technique can help clinicians risk-stratify patients and make appropriate clinical decisions for management and potentially guide future therapy"
The study was financially supported by SonoMedica.
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