No abstract

The growth in medical imaging over the past 2 decades has yielded unarguable benefits to patients in terms of longer lives of higher quality. This growth reflects new technologies and applications, including high-tech services such as multisection computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and positron emission tomography (PET). Some part of the growth, however, can be attributed to the overutilization of imaging services. This report examines the causes of the overutilization of imaging and identifies ways of addressing the causes so that overutilization can be reduced. In August 2009, the American Board of Radiology Foundation hosted a 2-day summit to discuss the causes and effects of the overutilization of imaging. More than 60 organizations were represented at the meeting, including health care accreditation and certification entities, foundations, government agencies, hospital and health systems, insurers, medical societies, health care quality consortia, and standards and regulatory agencies. Key forces influencing overutilization were identified. These include the payment mechanisms and financial incentives in the U.S. health care system; the practice behavior of referring physicians; self-referral, including referral for additional radiologic examinations; defensive medicine; missed educational opportunities when inappropriate procedures are requested; patient expectations; and duplicate imaging studies. Summit participants suggested several areas for improvement to reduce overutilization, including a national collaborative effort to develop evidence-based appropriateness criteria for imaging; greater use of practice guidelines in requesting and conducting imaging studies; decision support at point of care; education of referring physicians, patients, and the public; accreditation of imaging facilities; management of self-referral and defensive medicine; and payment reform.

By adopting precise definitions of essential terms, developing objective criteria by which the various measures of success or failure can be judged, and establishing a standardized scheme by which severity of disease, degrees of improvement or deterioration, and risk factors that affect outcome can be graded, the quality of published reports of revascularization procedures for lower extremity ischemia can be greatly improved, allowing comparative evaluation of treatment modalities.

The device used in this study can be implanted without additional risks to the patient and provided encouraging patency rates up to 1 year.

PTA is an established method of revascularization in a variety of medical conditions. It is performed for specific morphologic and clinical indications. PTA is the procedure of choice in Fontaine stage IIB through IV lower extremity ischemia due to iliac and/or femoropopliteal stenosis or short occlusion. Its role is less certain in infrapopliteal disease, although current studies have begun to establish long-term effectiveness. PTA is the procedure of choice for renal revascularization in renovascular hypertension due to fibromuscular disease or non-ostial atherosclerosis, selected cases of renal artery stenosis associated with renal insufficiency, and transplant renal artery stenosis. It is also useful in treating the renovascular component of complex hypertension and may be indicated in severe renal artery stenosis (75%-99%), even in the absence of clinically demonstrable RVHTN. PTA has limited applications in the venous system and only short-term success in the treatment of stenoses in dialysis access fistulas. PTA often serves as an important adjunct to surgical revascularization by providing improved inflow or outflow. PTA is the procedure of choice when anatomically feasible in subclavian steal syndrome. The role of PTA in carotid artery disease, particularly atheromatous disease of the internal carotid artery, is uncertain. The same may be said of PTA for vertebral artery stenosis, although the overwhelming majority of vertebral artery stenoses are morphologically suitable for PTA. PTA and surgery are both effective in the treatment of abdominal angina. There are more data available to verify the long-term patency of thromboendarterectomy and bypass grafts than PTA for mesenteric ischemia. However, since the technical success for PTA is high and since coronary co-morbidity is the most common cause of perioperative mortality in surgical series, PTA should be seriously considered as the procedure of first choice. Serious complications of PTA occur in approximately 5% of cases. Two to three percent of PTA patients have complications requiring surgery or causing a prolongation or alteration of hospital course. The morbidity, mortality, and cost associated with PTA are low. The discomfort is minor, and postprocedural recovery rapid. The major limitations of PTA include its unsuitability for some lesions (long-segment occlusions and stenoses, orifice lesions, eccentric lesions) and postangioplasty restenosis. These problems are being addressed by ongoing laboratory and clinical research. In the near future, it is likely that endoluminal transmural sonography of the vessel wall will help guide our interventions.