This project will investigate how diverse clinical, imaging, and molecular markers contribute to the development of cardiovascular diseases using the large-scale resources of UK Biobank. By integrating routinely collected risk factors, advanced imaging phenotypes, and high-dimensional molecular data, we aim to provide a comprehensive view of determinants of major cardiovascular diseases. We will focus on ischemic heart disease/coronary artery disease (including myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndromes, chronic coronary syndromes), heart failure, arrhythmias (including atrial fibrillation/flutter, supraventricular arrhythmias, bradyarrhythmias, ventricular arrhythmias), valvular disease (including aortic stenosis, aortic insufficiency, mitral stenosis, mitral insufficiency), inflammatory heart diseases (including endocarditis, myocarditis, pericarditis), venous thromboembolism (including deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism), peripheral artery disease, and stroke. Cardiovascular diseases will be studied as a composite as well as individually.
The specific objectives are: (1) to identify clinical risk factors (prior diagnoses, self-reported baseline characteristics, anthropometrics, blood pressure, medication use) associated with incident cardiovascular diseases, beyond conventional risk factors; (2) to identify imaging markers associated with cardiovascular diseases, beyond conventional risk factors; (3) to identify molecular markers (genetic variants, circulating proteins, metabolites, routine laboratory measurements) associated with cardiovascular diseases; (4) to evaluate the relationships between these markers and systemic as well as disease-specific pathways, including immune-mediated and metabolic conditions; (5) to assess potential causal roles of candidate markers using Mendelian randomization; and (6) to construct integrative risk models for stratifying risk of these diseases.
