Critics of cardiac CT angiography question whether its benefits warrant its current widespread use and the amount of radiation exposure.

CNN: Heart test can pack radioactive wallop

Patients who undergo cardiac CT angiography are within their rights to ask about what strategies, if any, are being used to reduce radiation dosage, he said.

CNN: Heart test can pack radioactive wallop

In the new study, Hausleiter and his colleagues looked at patients who underwent cardiac CT angiography at 21 university hospitals and 29 community hospitals between February and December 2007.

CNN: Heart test can pack radioactive wallop

"Probably the group of centers which were studied in this paper are more sophisticated and more aware of radiation-reduction methods than your typical center that is performing cardiac CT angiography, " he says.

CNN: Heart test can pack radioactive wallop

When cardiac CT angiography is being used appropriately -- meaning, for example, in people with chest pain suggesting blocked heart arteries, rather than as a screening test for people with no symptoms of heart disease -- the benefits far outweigh the risk of the radiation, according to Einstein and Hausleiter.

CNN: Heart test can pack radioactive wallop