Costs of Anatomic vs. Functional Testing for Coronary Artery Disease

In the PROMISE trial, researchers randomized 10,000 symptomatic outpatients without known coronary artery disease (CAD) to anatomic testing (computed tomography angiography [CTA]) or functional testing (exercise treadmill testing, stress echocardiography, or nuclear stress testing) to evaluate for obstructive CAD. At a median follow-up of 25 months, the primary and secondary outcomes, which included all-cause mortality and myocardial infarction, were not significantly different among the testing groups (NEJM JW Gen Med Apr 15 2015 and N Engl J Med 2015; 372:1291). In this new analysis, researchers evaluated costs for the anatomic and functional strategies.

At 90 days, mean costs for the CTA group versus the functional group were not signific…