Abstract
PURPOSE: The retina provides biomarkers of neuronal and vascular health that offer promising insights into cognitive ageing, mild cognitive impairment and dementia. This article described the rationale and methodology of eye and vision assessments with the aim of supporting the study of dementia in the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging study. PARTICIPANTS: UK Biobank is a large-scale, multicentre, prospective cohort containing in-depth genetic, lifestyle, environmental and health information from half a million participants aged 40-69 enrolled in 2006-2010 across the UK. A subset (up to 60 000 participants) of the cohort will be invited to the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging Study to collect repeated brain, cardiac and abdominal MRI scans, whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, carotid ultrasound, as well as retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) and colour fundus photographs. FINDINGS TO DATE: UK Biobank has helped make significant advances in understanding risk factors for many common diseases, including for dementia and cognitive decline. Ophthalmic genetic and epidemiology studies have also benefited from the unparalleled combination of very large numbers of participants, deep phenotyping and longitudinal follow-up of the cohort, with comprehensive health data linkage to disease outcomes. In addition, we have used UK Biobank data to describe the relationship between retinal structures, cognitive function and brain MRI-derived phenotypes. FUTURE PLANS: The collection of eye-related data (eg, OCT), as part of the UK Biobank Repeat Imaging study, will take place in 2022-2028. The depth and breadth and longitudinal nature of this dataset, coupled with its open-access policy, will create a major new resource for dementia diagnostic discovery and to better understand its association with comorbid diseases. In addition, the broad and diverse data available in this study will support research into ophthalmic diseases and various other health outcomes beyond dementia.
64 Authors
- Paul J Foster
- Denize Atan
- Anthony Khawaja
- Andrew Lotery
- Tom MacGillivray
- Christopher G Owen
- Praveen J Patel
- Axel Petzold
- Alicja Rudnicka
- Zihan Sun
- Simon Sheard
- Naomi Allen
- Naomi Allen
- Tariq Aslam
- Denize Atan
- Konstantinos Balaskas
- Sarah Barman
- Jenny Barrett
- Paul Bishop
- Graeme Black
- Tasanee Braithwaite
- Roxana Carare
- Usha Chakravarthy
- Michelle Chan
- Sharon Chua
- Alexander Day
- Parul Desai
- Bal Dhillon
- Andrew Dick
- Alexander Doney
- Cathy Egan
- Sarah Ennis
- Paul Foster
- Marcus Fruttiger
- John Gallacher
- David Garway-Heath
- Jane Gibson
- Jeremy Guggenheim
- Chris Hammond
- Alison Hardcastle
- Simon Harding
- Ruth Hogg
- Pirro Hysi
- Pearse Keane
- Peng Tee Khaw
- Anthony Khawaja
- Gerassimos Lascaratos
- Thomas Littlejohns
- Andrew Lotery
- Robert Luben
- Phil Luthert
- Tom Macgillivray
- Sarah Mackie
- Savita Madhusudhan
- Bernadette Mcguinness
- Gareth Mckay
- Martin Mckibbin
- Tony Moore
- James Morgan
- Eoin O'sullivan
- Richard Oram
- Chris Owen
- Praveen Patel
- Euan Paterson