Sub-theme: Efficient scanning using cardiovascular computed tomography

Cardiac image from computed tomography angiography

Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is now integrated into the clinical guidelines for ruling out chest pain. However, as the method stands now, it only detects severe disease, and it is a useful method of excluding significant coronary atherosclerosis, i.e. major narrowing of the artery lumen. However, knowing that 50% of heart attacks happen in the presence of non-severe coronary disease, the unmet need is to identify those patients who are at risk for heart attacks, increasing the sensitivity of CTA, allowing its use for risk stratification, the process of analysing a patient’s risk of heart health problems.

In this sub-theme, we are focused on the development of novel methodologies that will allow efficient scanning and particularly we are working towards the development of innovative image analysis applications that would allow risk re-stratification, or re-assessment, of patients undergoing cardiac CTA. We are also focused on the development of algorithms that will allow extraction of information from standard CTA scans, beyond atherosclerotic disease burden, such as information on the patients’ immunometabolic profile, blood flow in the coronaries and other arterial beds, myocardial physiology and others.