"Findings from this PROMISE substudy demonstrate the opportunity to use a simple blood test in the initial evaluation of symptomatic patients with suspected CAD to help clinicians determine next steps and make clinical decisions," said Deepak Voora, M.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine, Duke Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine. "The lower likelihood of not only CAD but risk of revascularization procedures seen in patients with low scores suggests that the score, in conjunction with a physician's clinical assessment, could provide additional information to help physicians efficiently and effectively rule out clinically significant obstructive CAD in the outpatient setting."

"We are very excited to see that the results from the large genomic substudy from the NIH-funded PROMISE Trial independently corroborate findings from our earlier Corus CAD clinical studies on the clinical validity of the test in the evaluation of obstructive CAD. In addition, while we have seen that in previous studies that patients with low Corus CAD test scores have a very low likelihood of major cardiac events within a one-year follow up period, it is very reassuring that the PROMISE substudy results confirm and extend this finding with greater than two years of follow-up seen here," said Mark Monane, M.D., FACP, Chief Medical Officer of CardioDx. "Lastly, we note the finding that clinical outcomes among the patients with the low scores on the Corus CAD blood test (approximately 45% of the study patients) were no different from patients with normal cardiac stress testing or CT-angiography. Taken together, these three results highlight the characteristics of the Corus CAD test to safely and accurately help clinicians risk stratify symptomatic patients, so that patients can potentially avoid additional cardiac testing and procedures that may be potentially unnecessary."


About Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a very common heart condition in the United States. One in seven deaths among Americans is caused by CAD.1 CAD can cause a narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries (vessels to the heart that supply the heart with blood, oxygen, and nutrients), reducing blood flow to the heart muscle. This narrowing or blockage in the coronary arteries is often referred to as obstructive CAD, characterized by the presence of atherosclerosis, or plaque.

About the PROMISE Trial
Sponsored by Duke University in collaboration with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) the Prospective Multicenter Imaging Study for Evaluation of Chest Pain (PROMISE) is the first large randomized trial using clinical outcomes to compare alternative diagnostic strategies for assessment of patients with new stable symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease (CAD).2

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