Excess Diagnosis in Cardiology: the Overdiagnosis Issue

Cláudio Tinoco Mesquita

doi:10.5935/2359-4802.20150025

Abstract

Overdiagnosis can be considered the diagnosis of a “disease” that will never cause symptoms or death during the life of the patient. In a recent publication, researchers from the Cochrane Centre systematically analyzed 14 publicat ions on check-up tests involving 182,880 participants and concluded that there was no reduction in the rates of mortality and morbidity associated with the check-up and, on the contrary, there was an increase in the number diagnoses and use of medications1.

Highlights

The greater the ability to identify diseases early and accurately by means of growing technological resources, the greater the possibility of interfering with the clinical course of these conditions, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality
In the emergency room setting, computed tomography angiography of the coronary arteries is a tool that can effectively rule out the presence of atheromatosis
While the use of coronary angiography has little impact on the prognosis of patients there will be significant increase in the rate of coronary artery bypass grafting, whenever this technique reveals the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD)

Summary

Introduction

The greater the ability to identify diseases early and accurately by means of growing technological resources, the greater the possibility of interfering with the clinical course of these conditions, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality. Researchers from the Cochrane Centre systematically analyzed 14 publications on check-up tests involving 182,880 participants and concluded that there was no reduction in the rates of mortality and morbidity associated with the check-up and, on the contrary, there was an increase in the number diagnoses and use of medications[1].

Results

Conclusion