Tag Archives: diagnostic coronary angiography

Introduction Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains among the leading causes of premature death in the UK, as well as the leading cause of death worldwide. In the UK, one in seven men and one in 11 women will die from CAD, which, on average, is one death every eight minutes.1 Despite advances in non-invasive diagnostic tools,2,3 invasive coronary angiography remains the gold-standard test for diagnosing CAD.4 Angiography is performed and learned by doctors in a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, or cath lab. Advanced nursing roles, supported by competency-based training, have been pioneered over the last 25 years, with emphasis on the develo

The study The research is presented as a retrospective case-control study in the modern era of coronary intervention, and gives some insight into current practice. Data from 100 randomly selected patients aged over 80 years and a control group aged below 70 years were taken from a district general hospital (DGH) DCA database. This method of patient selection is perhaps the major weakness of the study. There will inevitably have been a high degree of case selection – particularly of older patients – with those put forward deemed appropriate for DCA (and by implication also considered ‘reasonable’ candidates for revascularisation). The