The UK Biobank imaging enhancement of 100,000 participants: rationale, data collection, management and future directions.
Littlejohns TJ., Holliday J., Gibson LM., Garratt S., Oesingmann N., Alfaro-Almagro F., Bell JD., Boultwood C., Collins R., Conroy MC., Crabtree N., Doherty N., Frangi AF., Harvey NC., Leeson P., Miller KL., Neubauer S., Petersen SE., Sellors J., Sheard S., Smith SM., Sudlow CLM., Matthews PM., Allen NE.
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.