Image-Based Biological Heart Age Estimation Reveals Differential Aging Patterns Across Cardiac Chambers

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Radiology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Biological heart age estimation offers insights into cardiac aging.
• Existing studies lack regional specificity in cardiac aging analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate biological age of the left ventricle (LV), right ventricle (RV), myocardium, left atrium, and right atrium using MRI radiomics.
• To investigate regional determinants of cardiac aging.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a cross-sectional study of 18,117 healthy UK Biobank participants.
• Employed an automated algorithm for cardiac region segmentation and radiomic feature extraction.
• Applied Bayesian ridge regression to estimate biological age and linear regression to analyze age gap determinants.

Main Results:

• Estimated biological age for five cardiac regions with varying accuracy (LV smallest error, RV largest).
• Identified 172 significant associations with cardiac age gaps.
• Visceral adiposity, poor mental health, and dental problems correlated with larger age gaps, while higher bone mineral density correlated with smaller age gaps.

Conclusions:

• Image-based heart age estimation using radiomics is a novel approach to understanding cardiac aging.
• Cardiac aging is influenced by a range of factors including body composition, mental well-being, and bone health.