Deep learning of the retina enables phenome- and genome-wide analyses of the microvasculature.
File(s)CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057709 (1).pdf (2.93 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: The microvasculature, the smallest blood vessels in the body, has key roles in maintenance of organ health as well as tumorigenesis. The retinal fundus is a window for human in vivo non-invasive assessment of the microvasculature. Large-scale complementary machine learning-based assessment of the retinal vasculature with phenome-wide and genome-wide analyses may yield new insights into human health and disease. Methods: We utilized 97,895 retinal fundus images from 54,813 UK Biobank participants. Using convolutional neural networks to segment the retinal microvasculature, we calculated fractal dimension (FD) as a measure of vascular branching complexity, and vascular density. We associated these indices with 1,866 incident ICD-based conditions (median 10y follow-up) and 88 quantitative traits, adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, and ethnicity. Results: Low retinal vascular FD and density were significantly associated with higher risks for incident mortality, hypertension, congestive heart failure, renal failure, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, anemia, and multiple ocular conditions, as well as corresponding quantitative traits. Genome-wide association of vascular FD and density identified 7 and 13 novel loci respectively, which were enriched for pathways linked to angiogenesis (e.g., VEGF, PDGFR, angiopoietin, and WNT signaling pathways) and inflammation (e.g., interleukin, cytokine signaling). Conclusions: Our results indicate that the retinal vasculature may serve as a biomarker for future cardiometabolic and ocular disease and provide insights on genes and biological pathways influencing microvascular indices. Moreover, such a framework highlights how deep learning of images can quantify an interpretable phenotype for integration with electronic health records, biomarker, and genetic data to inform risk prediction and risk modification.
Date Issued
2021-11-08
Date Acceptance
2021-11-03
Citation
Circulation, 2021, 145 (2), pp.134-150
ISSN
0009-7322
Publisher
Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
Start Page
134
End Page
150
Journal / Book Title
Circulation
Volume
145
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Circulation is published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust- BRC Funding
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust- BRC Funding
British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34743558
Grant Number
RDC04
RDB02
RE/18/4/34215
RG/19/6/34387
Subjects
deep learning
epidemiology
genomics
mendelian randomization analysis
microvessels
retina
Cardiovascular System & Hematology
1102 Cardiorespiratory Medicine and Haematology
1103 Clinical Sciences
1117 Public Health and Health Services
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2021-11-08