Cardiac Imaging Guidelines

This policy covers cardiac imaging services including stress testing with or without imaging (including preoperative testing), transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography (including stress, 3D, and strain imaging), myocardial perfusion imaging, MUGA studies, and associated coding/diagnostic decision tools. It applies to patients being evaluated for suspected ischemia/CAD, preoperative cardiac risk, valve disease, cardiomyopathy/heart failure, pericardial disease, endocarditis/prosthetic valve or thrombus assessment, and intraoperative evaluation, but advanced imaging generally requires a recent pertinent clinical evaluation and supporting data (ECG, prior stress tests), may need physician review for atypical presentations, and is not covered if it will not affect clinical management or lacks required documentation.

"SPECT perfusion imaging for preoperative risk stratification."