American College of Radiology updates imaging appropriateness criteria with 13 new topics

“The ACR Appropriateness Criteria are an important part of medical practice and serve as an invaluable resource to help radiologists and other clinicians provide the best patient care,” Ihab Kamel, MD, PhD, chair of the ACR Committee on Appropriateness Criteria, said in a Nov. 12 announcement. “Hundreds of radiologists and volunteer specialists from more than 50 medical specialties form the expert panels that create and update these criteria to help ensure that patients get the right scan for their condition and avoid unnecessary care.”

ACR issued its last update to the appropriateness criteria in April, covering 11 new topics. The college has billed such efforts as an alternative way to relieve radiologist shortages, forcing referrers to focus only on necessary imaging exams so rads’ time is not wasted. Experts review the guidelines annually, with Spanish translations provided by the Colegio Interamericano de Radiología available across 185 topics. 

Here is the full list of new items:  

• Abdominal Pain – Child
• Chest Pain – Child
• Chronic Pancreatitis
• Demyelinating Diseases
  Evaluation of Cardiac Masses
• Imaging After Liver Transplant
• Ingested or Aspirated Foreign Body – Child
• Joint Pain: Idiopathic Arthritis – Child
• Preprocedural Chest or Cardiac Imaging for Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Staging and Follow-up of Gastric Cancer
• Staging and Follow-up of Melanoma
• Staging and Follow-up of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
• Thoracic Venous Occlusions-Suspected Superior Vena Cava Syndrome