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The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have issued guidelines for coronary revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; published in 2001 and updated in 2005) and by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG; published in 2004). To assess the extent to which invasive cardiologists adhere to these guidelines, investigators examined New York State data on 16,142 patients who underwent cardiac catheterization in 2005–2007.
The analysis included only the 64% of patients whose final revascularization strategy recommendation was made by the catheterization-laboratory cardiologist. Of patients with guideline indications for CABG, CABG was recommended for 53%, PCI for 34%, and medical managemen…