Abstract
BCU Imaging Biobank (BCU-IB) is a non-profit biorepository aimed at the collection, storage and retrieval of diagnostic images, derived descriptors and clinical data. The main scope of BCU-IB is to foster scientific advances in imaging and analysis, opening up new ways for biomedical research to diagnose, treat and potentially prevent diseases. BCU-IB collects a vast amount of images of the human body, including healthy and pathological subjects. Diagnostic images, clinical, anamnestic and demographic data are made available to study the associations between imaging phenotypes, diagnostic and prognostic factors. Curated datasets are stored and organized in a secure and reliable dedicated information systems based on the Extensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit (XNAT), hosted by Bio Check Up Srl.
Highlights
A general and shared definition of biobank is still debated by scientific organizations and guidelines at national and international level [1]
A recent advancement of biobanking is the development of imaging biobanks, defined by the European Society of Radiology as “organized databases of medical images, and associated imaging biomarkers, shared among multiple researchers, and linked to other bio-repositories” [2]
Imaging biobanks collect high quality digital images, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography (PET), together with raw data, associated metadata and measurements to allow the extraction of quantitative radiomic features from images, which might evolve into so-called “imaging biomarker” [3, 4, 5]
Summary
Informed consent and privacy protection forms were developed and approved by the local ethics committee Access to images and data is granted following approval by the scientific and ethic committee. Images and clinical data from healthy subjects or patients with oncological, cardiological, neurological and metabolic diseases. Healthy subjects: this cohort includes images, clinical records and data from healthy subjects (females and males) and it will be used as comparisons for anatomical regions, pathological states or quality control checks. The BCU-IB biobank is accessible since January 16, 2020 following the approval of the Ethics Committee of the “Molim Onco Brain Lab” project. Through the submission of a project, the pre-approval of the researchers’ home institution and the final validation from the Scientific and Ethics Committee and Advisory Board of BCU-IB, researchers can use the collections of BCU-IB in research including, and not limited to, radiomics, big data, pathology, diagnostics, precision medicine, predictive medicine
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