The NY Times has a long and informative article on the pressures physicians face to give patients with heart problems unnecessary CT angiogram scans, which are very expensive and not demonstrably more effective than cheaper tests.
Aside from the expense, the scans come with radiation exposure equal to as much as 1,000 chest X-rays.
Further, each scan creates an additional lifetime risk of cancer that is somewhere between 1 in 200 and 1 in 5,000, said Dr. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University. Younger patients and women are at higher risk.
Many patients do find it emotionally reassuring to get the results of these tests, since the CT scan allows the patient and doctor to actually see if the heart has any problems. However, perhaps part of the love of these tests stems from what Johns Hopkins professor of medicine Bruce Leff calls (in a letter to the NY Times editor) “gizmo idolatry“:
As a geriatrician and health services researcher, I believe that the demand for cardiac CT scans is a textbook example of gizmo idolatry, or the implicit conviction that a more technological approach is intrinsically better than one that is less technological.
The other letters are worth reading as well.
Despite concerns about the efficacy of these tests, many doctors and patients swear by them and they will probably remain popular. As the article notes, Medicare decided to fund these CT scans despite lack of clear evidence of their usefulness, and private insurers will most likely follow suit.