Quality criteria for the performance of cardiac computed tomography: Position paper of the German Cardiac Society

Abstract

Cardiac computed tomography (CT) has a high potential for optimization of patient care, especially in patients with chronic coronary syndrome and for planning catheter-assisted treatment of structural heart disease. A look at the United Kingdom (UK), where computed tomography angiography of the coronaries (CCTA) is now the standard and has become the primary diagnostic procedure, shows that the indications for invasive coronary diagnostics can be used with high patient safety and cost efficiency. To achieve this goal it is necessary to have clear quality criteria on the indications, performance, evaluation of the results and treatment recommendations. A cooperative heart team model with joint performance of services by radiologists and cardiologists is best suited to achieve these quality targets and to avoid a non-evidence-based expansion of services, which provokes additional workloads and therefore a significantly increased burden for the healthcare system.