Appropriate Use Criteria for Coronary Revascularization Issued

By the Editors

The American College of Cardiology, along with several other groups, has published appropriate use criteria for coronary revascularization in patients with acute coronary syndromes.

Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the document includes helpful tables that outline whether certain treatment strategies are appropriate, may be appropriate, or are rarely appropriate for various clinical scenarios. For example, for patients treated initially with fibrinolysis, percutaneous coronary intervention of the presumed culprit artery is considered appropriate when there's evidence of failed reperfusion post-fibrinolysis, or when patients are stable and asymptomatic after fibrinolysis and PCI can be performed within 3–24 hours.

The criteria are available free of charge at the link below.