Enhanced reference standard boosts CTA accuracy

Borrowing a technique from the virtual colonoscopy playbook, researchers from South Carolina and Germany found that coronary CT angiography (CTA) is better than previously thought compared to catheter-based coronary angiography — in fact the two tests are essentially equivalent, they said.

The comparison was obtained following the development of an enhanced reference standard known as segmental unblinding, which compares the results of two tests to each other rather than to a so-called “gold standard” modality — which often tends to be at least slightly tarnished.

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