Heart disease can be diagnosed in the majority of cases without needing a catheterisation and that many patients with chest pain receive unnecessary invasive procedures (EVINCI study):
According to preliminary results of the three-year European EVINCI trial study, organised by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), most patients with suspected coronary disease undergo invasive procedures such as angiography without first having preliminary effective noninvasive screening. However, obstructive coronary disease is found to be present in less than 40% of patients undergoing invasive coronary angiography. This fact highlights the need for testing of high-risk patients with noninvasive methods to avoid risky and inappropriate invasive procedures. It was also stressed that better use of noninvasive screening tests for patients with chest pain could avoid up to 75% of costly invasive procedures.