# Anatomical and Functional Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease Using Whole-Heart Dynamic Computed Tomography

> **NIH NIH F30** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2020 · $50,520

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Fortunately,
morbidity and mortality are significantly reduced when patients are risk stratified using computed
tomography angiography (CTA) and treated appropriately with medical therapy or revascularization.
Unfortunately, CTA is limited in that lesion severity is based solely on lesion morphology; hence,
collateralization, calcification, and artifacts often confound diagnostic results. Visual grading of CAD
also has high intra- and inter-observer variability, and often correlates poorly with myocardial ischemia,
especially for intermediate severity focal disease (30-70% luminal narrowing), diffuse disease, and
microvascular disease. Hence, CTA alone cannot fully characterize the true severity of CAD, and
functional assessment techniques, such as dynamic computed tomography perfusion (CTP), are
necessary, in conjunction with CTA, for more objective indication of CAD significance. Unfortunately,
such dynamic CTP techniques systematically underestimate perfusion and deliver unacceptably high
radiation doses per CAD exam, hampering their widespread clinical utility.
Given the limitations of CTA and dynamic CTP, this proposal aims to validate an accurate, low-dose,
CTA and dynamic CTP fusion technique based on first-pass analysis (FPA CTAP) for combined
anatomical and functional assessment of CAD. The central hypothesis is that simultaneous acquisition
of CTA and dynamic CTP data using a whole-heart CT scanner, two volume scans, and a single
contrast injection will enable accurate, low-dose, vessel-specific myocardial perfusion measurement.
Specifically, I aim to determine if vessel-specific myocardial perfusion can be accurately measured in
15 swine through retrospective implementation of the FPA CTAP technique. I also aim to determine if
vessel-specific myocardial perfusion can be accurately measured in 15 more swine through low-dose
prospective implementation of the FPA CTAP technique.
By validating such a combined approach to CAD assessment, this research may ultimately reduce the
contrast and radiation dose associated with CTA and dynamic CTP, while improving measurement
accuracy, making anatomical and functional assessment of CAD more accessible and impactful to
patients in need.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9918155
- **Project number:** 5F30HL137288-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Logan Charles Hubbard
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $50,520
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2021-06-11

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9918155

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9918155, Anatomical and Functional Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease Using Whole-Heart Dynamic Computed Tomography (5F30HL137288-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9918155. Licensed CC0.

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