Abstract
PurposeTo assess the suitability of retinal images held in the UK Biobank - the largest retinal data repository in a prospective population-based cohort - for computer assisted vascular morphometry, generating measures that are commonly investigated as candidate biomarkers of systemic disease.MethodsNon-mydriatic fundus images from both eyes of 2,690 participants - people with a self-reported history of myocardial infarction (n=1,345) and a matched control group (n=1,345) - were analysed using VAMPIRE software. These images were drawn from those of 68,554 UK Biobank participants who underwent retinal imaging at recruitment. Four operators were trained in the use of the software to measure retinal vascular tortuosity and bifurcation geometry.ResultsTotal operator time was approximately 360 hours (4 minutes per image). 2,252 (84%) of participants had at least one image of sufficient quality for the software to process, i.e. there was sufficient detection of retinal vessels in the image by the software to attempt the measurement of the target parameters. 1,604 (60%) of participants had an image of at least one eye that was adequately analysed by the software, i.e. the measurement protocol was successfully completed. Increasing age was associated with a reduced proportion of images that could be processed (p=0.0004) and analysed (p<0.0001). Cases exhibited more acute arteriolar branching angles (p=0.02) as well as lower arteriolar and venular tortuosity (p<0.0001).ConclusionsA proportion of the retinal images in UK Biobank are of insufficient quality for automated analysis. However, the large size of the UK Biobank means that tens of thousands of images are available and suitable for computational analysis. Parametric information measured from the retinas of participants with suspected cardiovascular disease was significantly different to that measured from a matched control group.
Highlights
Around 20 million people in the UK alone suffer from at least one long term health condition, and over the decade this is set to increase three-fold with the ageing population placing an enormous economic and human-resource strain on the health care system [1,2,3]
A proportion of the retinal images in UK Biobank are of insufficient quality for automated analysis
The large size of the UK Biobank means that tens of thousands of images are available and suitable for computational analysis
Summary
Around 20 million people in the UK alone suffer from at least one long term health condition, and over the decade this is set to increase three-fold with the ageing population placing an enormous economic and human-resource strain on the health care system [1,2,3]. The UK Biobank includes the largest retinal data repository in a prospective populationbased cohort and represents an important and valuable resource, accessible to international researchers, for improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of long-term conditions and chronic illness [11]. We accessed fundus images held in the UK Biobank and subjected them to computational analysis using VAMPIRE (Vascular Assessment and Measurement Platform for Images of the REtina) software [12, 13], which yields parametric information relating to the retinal vasculature that may be indicative of systemic disease [5, 14]. Validation of relevant VAMPIRE modules has been reported elsewhere [12, 13, 15, 16]
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