Vascular and behavioral (lifestyle) risk factors have been associated with development of cerebrovascular disease and cognitive impairment in the aging population. Although several genetic factors and imaging biomarkers such as white matter hyperintensity (WMH), lacune, cerebral microbleeds, cortical superficial siderosis and enlarged perivascular spaces have been associated with cerebrovascular disease and cognitive impairment, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. The project aims to investigate the relationship between vascular risk factors, lifestyle, genetic, imaging and blood biomarker and development of cerebraovascular disease and cognitive impairment in UK Biobank. This study uses both cross-sectional data and prospectively collected longitudinal data with follow-up. The UK Biobank biomarker, genetic data, demographic and risk factor profile and cognitive data will be used.The demographic, clinical, and genetic data in UK Biobank provide the unique opportunity for a better understanding of disease processes in cerebrovascular disease and cognitive decline. Our project meets one of the UK Biobank’s purpose – to improve prevention, early diagnosis and management of medical conditions by understanding the the interplay and causality of vascular risk factors, genetic traits in the development of cerebrovascular disease or cognitive decline. The work will test for the association using genome-wide association study data in the UK Biobank, together with clinical variables and imaging data.
