Todd Villines from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center: Managing Patients After Coronary CT Angiography

At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center there is an extra focus in ensuring tests are accurate for service members either before deploying or when they return home. As a result they have made a concerted effort to improve several tests including cardiac CT.

Lt. Col. Todd C. Villines, MD, discussed the program which is now 10 years old while attending the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Chicago. Villines said for patients with suspected coronary heart disease it is important to find the right diagnosis quickly to ensure their overall health after leaving the hospital. When it comes to tests like stress tests Villines said there was a chance of either a false positive or an incorrect diagnosis which makes cardiac CT that much more important to their patients. The program in Maryland has screened more than 3000 patients since its inception.