October 21, 2014 — CardioDx Inc., a molecular diagnostics company specializing in cardiovascular genomics, today announced the presentation of the study, "The Use of a Gene Expression Score Showed Clinical Utility in Evaluating African Americans Presenting with Symptoms Suggestive of Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease in a Primary Care Practice," at the 36th annual North American Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making, taking place from Oct. 18-22 in Miami.
The study evaluated the clinical utility of the Corus CAD blood-based gene expression test in the assessment of 518 African American patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in a primary care setting. The results demonstrate the impact of Corus CAD score on clinician decision-making: Patients with low Corus CAD scores ( ? 15) had a 95 percent decreased rate of referral for advanced cardiac testing compared to patients with elevated ( > 15) Corus CAD scores (8/214 vs. 227/304). By ruling out obstructive CAD early in the work-up, the Corus CAD test was able to help clinicians avoid unnecessary referrals to cardiology or advanced cardiac testing when their patients' symptoms are due to non-cardiac causes.
Corus CAD is a blood-based test incorporating age, sex, and gene expression measurements that provides a current-state assessment of obstructive CAD in non-diabetic patients presenting with non-acute typical or atypical symptoms. The results of the gene expression measurements are combined with the patient's age and sex in an algorithm that delivers a score representing the likelihood of obstructive CAD. With a 96 percent negative predictive value, Corus CAD can help clinicians accurately rule out obstructive CAD as the source of their patients' symptoms, so that they may investigate other non-cardiac causes.
"These results show that Corus CAD can be a powerful decision-making tool for clinicians guiding their African American patients through the diagnostic pathway for suspected obstructive CAD," says lead author Morris Brown, M.D., of Providence Medical Group in Dayton, Ohio. "Given the heterogeneity in clinical manifestations of suspected obstructive CAD amongst different ethnic populations in the United States, a convenient and accurate blood test like Corus CAD that is effective across a spectrum of patients provides tremendous clinical value, particularly when it allows us to avoid costly and potentially harmful cardiac tests for patients who don't need them."
Of the 518 patients enrolled in the study, 41 percent (n=214) had a low Corus CAD score, demonstrating that the test has high relevance to clinical practice for ruling out obstructive CAD in a significant number of patients in everyday practice. The authors concluded that Corus CAD improved care for those patients with a low score by avoiding unnecessary, and potentially invasive, advanced diagnostic testing.
For more information: www.cardiodx.com
April 16, 2024 
