Exeter College DPhil student showcases PCCT research at SCCT Congress in Montreal

Dr Rafail A. Kotronias, a third-year DPhil student in Medical Sciences at Exeter College, University of Oxford, recently presented his latest research at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) Congress in Montreal, one of the world’s leading conferences in cardiac imaging. His attendance was supported by an academic travel grant from Exeter College.  

His research centres on Photon-Counting Computed Tomography (PCCT), a next-generation CT technology that offers unprecedented spatial resolution and tissue characterisation. Dr Kotronias and his colleagues developed a novel PCCT imaging protocol, which they applied to a cohort of 30 patients within one week of experiencing a heart attack. The study, conducted at Oxford’s Acute Multidisciplinary Imaging & Intervention Centre (AMIIC), is the first to use PCCT in this clinical context. 

The results demonstrated that PCCT can accurately detect several key components of heart damage, including both potentially reversible and irreversible scarring, with high precision and accuracy compared with cardiac MRI, the current reference standard. 

Dr Kotronias’s work shows PCCT enables simultaneous assessment of both coronary arteries and heart muscle in a single scan, a major step forward in the evaluation of patients presenting with heart attacks. The work was met with enthusiasm at SCCT and praised for its potential to transform non-invasive cardiac diagnosis. 

This marks Dr Kotronias’s second major achievement this year. Earlier, he received a separate Exeter College travel grant to pursue research at the University of Ottawa, where he is now investigating the use of nanotechnology to develop innovative non-invasive molecular imaging techniques with potential applications in PCCT.  

Exeter College warmly congratulates Dr Kotronias on his continued research excellence and growing impact in the field of cardiovascular imaging.