The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved a software program that can noninvasively identify coronary artery blockages, avoiding the need to diagnose the problem via cardiac catheterization.
The software is FFR-CT, from a company called HeartFlow. As its name suggests, FFR-CT calculates fractional flow reserve (FFR), a key measurement in diagnosing coronary artery disease, based on computed tomography (CT) scans of the patient's heart. Expressed as a ratio, FFR compares the maximum achievable blood flow in a diseased coronary artery with the theoretical maximum flow in a normal one. Cardiologists generally consider an FFR below 0.75 to 0.80 to be associated with myocardial ischemia.