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The UK Biobank imaging enhancement of 100,000 participants: rationale, data collection, management and future
Thomas J Littlejohns1, Jo Holliday2, Lorna M Gibson3,4
1Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. thomas.littlejohns@ndph.ox.ac.uk.
Abstract:
UK Biobank is a population-based cohort of half a million participants aged 40-69 years recruited between 2006 and 2010. In 2014, UK Biobank started the world's largest multi-modal imaging study, with the aim of re-inviting 100,000 participants to undergo brain, cardiac and abdominal magnetic resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and carotid ultrasound. The combination of large-scale multi-modal imaging with extensive phenotypic and genetic data offers an unprecedented resource for scientists to conduct health-related research. This article provides an in-depth overview of the imaging enhancement, including the data collected, how it is managed and processed, and future directions.
