# Deviceless and Autonomous Prospective Cardiac CT Triggering

> **NIH NIH R01** · GENERAL ELECTRIC GLOBAL RESEARCH CTR · 2021 · $1,040,660

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. An estimated 3.8 million men and 3.4
million women die each year from CHD. Cardiac CT is a safe, accurate, non-invasive imaging modality used for
diagnosing CHD and for planning therapeutic interventions. Cardiac CT exams are still challenging to perform
due to the beating heart and the need to carefully time the scan based on cardiac phase and based on when the
peak iodine contrast enhancement is reached. The overall exam duration and the complexity of performing these
exams (contrasted with limited reimbursement levels) have limited patient access to cardiac CT to academic
hospitals and specialized cardiac imaging centers. As compared to other CT exams, cardiac CT exams require
additional patient preparation time, additional CT scans to track the bolus, and additional contrast agent to avoid
missing the peak enhancement.
 The goal of this project is to develop a smart cardiac CT scanner that autonomously determines the optimal
scan time interval without ECG, traditional bolus tracking or timing bolus. Initial results show that it is possible
to extract cardiac gating information from a few CT projection measurements prior to the diagnostic CT scan,
without reconstruction. This is made possible by an innovative combination of fast X-ray tube pulsing and deep
learning raw data analysis. This project builds on GE Research's experience with cardiac CT technologies, deep
learning algorithms and X-ray tube physics, as well as the strong clinical cardiac CT expertise at the University
of California San Diego.
 The outcome of this project will be a clinical feasibility study of the autonomous triggering approach, which
has the potential to simplify and increase patient access to cardiac CT, while reducing exam time, reducing con-
trast agent volume, and ensuring robust image quality.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10227088
- **Project number:** 5R01HL153250-02
- **Recipient organization:** GENERAL ELECTRIC GLOBAL RESEARCH CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Bruno K De Man
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,040,660
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10227088

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10227088, Deviceless and Autonomous Prospective Cardiac CT Triggering (5R01HL153250-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10227088. Licensed CC0.

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