Product Overview

What is Corus CAD?

Corus® CAD is the only blood test that can quickly and safely assess whether or not your patient's symptoms are due to obstructive* coronary artery disease (CAD).  Corus CAD is a decision-making tool that can help identify patients unlikely to have obstructive CAD and help you determine appropriate next steps for patient management.

  • Clinically validated in a large, prospective, multicenter trial in the U.S. called PREDICT1
  • Provides an assessment of your patient’s current disease state without risks associated with imaging radiation, imaging agents, and/or contrast solutions
  • Gene expression test that integrates the expression levels of 23 genes involved in the development of and/or response to atherosclerosis into a single score, which has been proven to accurately identify patients without obstructive CAD
  • The first sex-specific test for CAD that accounts for key biological differences between men and women
  • Has high sensitivity and negative predictive value, and improves the classification of patient disease status1

Why do I need Corus CAD in my practice?

Chest pain and related atypical symptomatic presentations are the chief complaint in as many as 2% of overall outpatient visits in U.S. medicine. This translates to approximately 3.5 million visits to primary care physicians each year by 45-74 year old adults as a result of experiencing these symptoms. However, it has been reported that only 10% of these presentations turn out to be related to stable coronary artery disease, whereas over half of them are related to gastrointestinal or musculoskeletal conditions.2-4

Moreover, recent evidence from the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that current modalities for identifying which patients should undergo elective, invasive coronary angiography to diagnose CAD have limitations, and that better methods are needed for patient risk stratification.5

Why gene expression?

Corus CAD is a gene expression test, not a genetic test. Whereas genetic testing provides prediction of lifetime disease risk, the Corus CAD gene expression test provides a current-state assessment for obstructive CAD by looking at the gene expression changes associated with atherosclerosis.  Gene expression levels change depending on a person’s disease status. Combining the Corus CAD gene expression test with other noninvasive assessments provides you with a more complete picture of your patient’s coronary artery disease status through its clinical utility for identifying patients unlikely to have obstructive CAD.1

How do I use Corus CAD?

As a blood test that can be easily integrated into any practice setting, Corus CAD:

  • Is performed through a quick, routine blood draw conveniently administered right in your office
  • Delivers objective, reproducible results within about two days1
  • Complements your current noninvasive assessment of CAD, while improving diagnostic accuracy for obstructive CAD1

Who is the Corus CAD patient?

For information on which patients are appropriate for Corus CAD, please see Corus CAD Patient Selection.

For a complete description of the intended use population for Corus CAD, please see the Corus CAD Intended Use Statement.

To help you incorporate Corus CAD into your practice, CardioDx® provides:

  • Clinician product support and procedure training
  • Specialized consultations with a CardioDx clinician to assist in patient selection and test result interpretation
  • Easy, 24-hour access to your patients’ reports and customized charts, as well as tables, through a secure, web-based Clinician Access Portal
  • A dedicated team of insurance experts available to work with patients, clinicians, and payers to obtain positive reimbursement through billing and appeals.  The team can also assist by providing financial assistance through the CARE Patient Financial Assistance Program


Expression of Insight


* Obstructive CAD is defined as at least one atherosclerotic plaque causing ≥50% luminal diameter stenosis in a major coronary artery (≥1.5 mm lumen diameter) as determined by invasive quantitative coronary angiography (QCA).
  1. Rosenberg S, Elashoff MR, Beineke P, et al. Multicenter validation of the diagnostic accuracy of a blood-based gene expression test for assessing obstructive coronary artery disease in nondiabetic patients. Ann Intern Med. 2010;153:425–434.
  2. Cayley WE Jr. Diagnosing the cause of chest pain. Am Fam Physician. 2005; 15;72(10):2012–-2021.
  3. National Health Statistics Report, 2008.
  4. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2008. Hyattsville, Maryland: Public Health Service. 2008.
  5. Patel MR, Peterson ED, Dai D, et al. Low diagnostic yield of elective coronary angiography. N Engl J Med. 2010;362:886–895.