Filippini, Nicola; Zsoldos, Enikő; Haapakoski, Rita; Sexton, Claire E; Mahmood, Abda; Allan, Charlotte L; Topiwala, Anya; Valkanova, Vyara; Brunner, Eric J; Shipley, Martin J; +21 more... Auerbach, Edward; Moeller, Steen; Uğurbil, Kâmil; Xu, Junqian; Yacoub, Essa; Andersson, Jesper; Bijsterbosch, Janine; Clare, Stuart; Griffanti, Ludovica; Hess, Aaron T; Jenkinson, Mark; Miller, Karla L; Salimi-Khorshidi, Gholamreza; Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N; Voets, Natalie L; Smith, Stephen M; Geddes, John R; Singh-Manoux, Archana; Mackay, Clare E; Kivimäki, Mika; Ebmeier, Klaus P; (2014) Study protocol: The Whitehall II imaging sub-study. BMC psychiatry, 14 (1). 159-. ISSN 1471-244X DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-159
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Whitehall II (WHII) study of British civil servants provides a unique source of longitudinal data to investigate key factors hypothesized to affect brain health and cognitive ageing. This paper introduces the multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol and cognitive assessment designed to investigate brain health in a random sample of 800 members of the WHII study. METHODS/DESIGN: A total of 6035 civil servants participated in the WHII Phase 11 clinical examination in 2012-2013. A random sample of these participants was included in a sub-study comprising an MRI brain scan, a detailed clinical and cognitive assessment, and collection of blood and buccal mucosal samples for the characterisation of immune function and associated measures. Data collection for this sub-study started in 2012 and will be completed by 2016. The participants, for whom social and health records have been collected since 1985, were between 60-85 years of age at the time the MRI study started. Here, we describe the pre-specified clinical and cognitive assessment protocols, the state-of-the-art MRI sequences and latest pipelines for analyses of this sub-study. DISCUSSION: The integration of cutting-edge MRI techniques, clinical and cognitive tests in combination with retrospective data on social, behavioural and biological variables during the preceding 25 years from a well-established longitudinal epidemiological study (WHII cohort) will provide a unique opportunity to examine brain structure and function in relation to age-related diseases and the modifiable and non-modifiable factors affecting resilience against and vulnerability to adverse brain changes.
Item Type | Article |
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Faculty and Department | Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health > Dept of Population Health (2012- ) |
PubMed ID | 24885374 |
ISI | 336856800001 |
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