ACR announces four new topics and 11 revised topics to Appropriateness Criteria
The American College of Radiology (ACR) announces updates to its ACR Appropriateness Criteria (ACR AC), which is used to support referring physicians and other providers when making appropriate imaging or treatment decisions. The updates include 227 diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology topics with over 1,080 clinical variants covering 3,000 clinical scenarios.
The new topics include: Abnormal Liver Function Tests; Congenital or Acquired Heart Disease; Dialysis Fistula Malfunction; Staging and Post-Therapy Assessment of Head and Neck Cancer.
Revised topics include: Breast Implant Evaluation; Imaging after Total Hip Arthroplasty; Imaging After Total Knee Arthroplasty; Incidentally Detected Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodule; Left Lower Quadrant Pain; Lower Extremity Chronic Venous Disease; Preprocedural Planning for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement; Pulsatile Abdominal Mass, Suspected Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm; Sudden Onset of Cold, Painful Leg;Tinnitus; Acute Onset Flank Pain-Suspicion of Stone Disease (Urolithiasis).
Referring physicians and other providers may consult the ACR AC to fulfill requirements mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act—requiring that physicians consult appropriate use criteria prior to ordering advanced diagnostic imaging for Medicare patients.
More information about ACR AC is available on the ACR website.
