UK Biobank retinal imaging grading: methodology, baseline characteristics and findings for common ocular diseases
Alasdair Warwick, Katie Curran, Barbra Hamill, Kelsey V. Stuart, Anthony P. Khawaja, Paul J. Foster, Andrew Lotery, Michael Quinn, Savita Madhusudhan, Konstantinos Balaskas, Tünde Pető, Naomi E. Allen, Tariq Aslam, D. Atan, Sarah Barman, Jessica Barrett, J. Barrett, Graeme C. Black, Tasanee Braithwaite, Roxana O. Carare, Usha Chakravarthy, Michelle Chan, Sharon Chua, Alexander Day, Parul Desai, Baljean Dhillon, Andrew D. Dick, Alex S. F. Doney, Catherine Egan, Sarah Ennis, Paul J. Foster, Marcus Fruttiger, J. Gallacher, David F. Garway‐Heath, Jane Whitney Gibson, Jeremy A. Guggenheim, Christopher J. Hammond, Alison J. Hardcastle, Simon Harding, Ruth Hogg, Pirro G. Hysi, Pearse A. Keane, Peng T. Khaw, Anthony P. Khawaja, Gerassimos Lascaratos, Thomas J. Littlejohns, Andrew Lotery, Philip J. Luthert, Tom MacGillivray, Sarah Mackie, Bernadette McGuinness, Gareth J. McKay, Martin McKibbin, T. Moore, John Morgan, R. Oram, E. O'Sullivan, Christopher G. Owen, Prem N. Patel, Euan Paterson, Tünde Pető, Axel Petzold, Nikolas Pontikos, Jugnoo S. Rahi, Alicja R. Rudnicka, N. Sattar, Jay Self, P. Sergouniotis, Sobha Sivaprasad, David Steel, Irene Stratton, Nicholas G. Strouthidis, Cathie Sudlow, Zihan Sun, Robyn J. Tapp, Dhanes Thomas, Emanuele Trucco, Adnan Tufail, A. C. Viswanathan, V. Vitart, M. Weedon, Cathy Williams, C. H. Williams, Jayne V. Woodside, Max Yates, Jennifer Yip, Yingfeng Zheng, Jennifer Yip, Yingfeng Zheng
Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study aims to describe the grading methods and baseline characteristics for UK Biobank (UKBB) participants who underwent retinal imaging in 2009-2010, and to characterise individuals with retinal features suggestive of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma and retinopathy. METHODS: Non-mydriatic colour fundus photographs and macular optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans were manually graded by Central Administrative Research Facility certified graders and quality assured by clinicians of the Network of Ophthalmic Reading Centres UK. Captured retinal features included those associated with AMD (≥1 drusen, pigmentary changes, geographic atrophy or exudative AMD; either imaging modality), glaucoma (≥0.7 cup-disc ratio, ≥0.2 cup-disc ratio difference between eyes, other abnormal disc features; photographs only) and retinopathy (characteristic features of diabetic retinopathy with or without microaneurysms; either imaging modality). Suspected cases of these conditions were characterised with reference to diagnostic records, physical and biochemical measurements. RESULTS: Among 68,514 UKBB participants who underwent retinal imaging, the mean age was 57.3 years (standard deviation 8.2), 45.7% were men and 90.6% were of White ethnicity. A total of 64,367 participants had gradable colour fundus photographs and 68,281 had gradable OCT scans in at least one eye. Retinal features suggestive of AMD and glaucoma were identified in 15,176 and 2184 participants, of whom 125 (0.8%) and 188 (8.6%), respectively, had a recorded diagnosis. Of 264 participants identified to have retinopathy with microaneurysms, 251 (95.1%) had either diabetes or hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: This dataset represents a valuable addition to what is currently available in UKBB, providing important insights to both ocular and systemic health.