Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK
Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
BMJ Open. 2023 Jun 23;13(6):e069258. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069258.
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.
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.
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.
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.
视网膜提供了神经元和血管健康的生物标志物，为认知老化、轻度认知障碍和痴呆提供了有前景的见解。本文描述了眼部和视力评估的原理和方法，旨在支持英国生物银行重复成像研究中痴呆症的研究。
英国生物银行是一个大型的、多中心的、前瞻性队列，包含来自英国各地 50 多万名年龄在 40-69 岁的参与者的深入遗传、生活方式、环境和健康信息。该队列的一部分（多达 60000 名参与者）将受邀参加英国生物银行重复成像研究，以收集重复的大脑、心脏和腹部 MRI 扫描、全身双能 X 射线吸收测定法、颈动脉超声，以及视网膜光学相干断层扫描（OCT）和彩色眼底照片。
英国生物银行在理解许多常见疾病的危险因素方面取得了重大进展，包括痴呆症和认知能力下降。眼科遗传学和流行病学研究也受益于无与伦比的大量参与者、队列的深入表型和纵向随访，以及与疾病结果的全面健康数据链接。此外，我们还使用英国生物银行数据描述了视网膜结构、认知功能和大脑 MRI 衍生表型之间的关系。
眼部相关数据（如 OCT）的收集，作为英国生物银行重复成像研究的一部分，将于 2022-2028 年进行。该数据集的深度、广度和纵向性质，加上其开放获取政策，将为痴呆症诊断发现创造一个重要的新资源，并更好地了解其与合并症的关系。此外，该研究中广泛多样的数据将支持眼科疾病和其他各种健康结果（超出痴呆症）的研究。
