ARIC-NCS brain MRI
Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS), visit 5 brain MRI
3 T brain MRI (MPRAGE, FLAIR, 2D T2* GRE) of 1,928 older adults from four US communities at ARIC visit 5 (2011-13), with centrally read microbleeds, infarcts and white matter hyperintensities. Access through an approved ARIC proposal and a data distribution agreement.
Overview
The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study has followed adults from four US communities since 1987-89, when they were 45 to 64 years old: Washington County (Maryland), Forsyth County (North Carolina), Jackson (Mississippi) and suburban Minneapolis (Minnesota). At the fifth examination in 2011-13, the ARIC Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS) scanned the brains of a subset of participants. This entry covers those visit 5 MRI scans and the reads made on them, which are often used to study cerebral microbleeds and small vessel disease in a biracial ageing population.
Composition
Visit 5 MRI targeted everyone with cognitive impairment or a prior ARIC brain MRI, plus an age- and site-stratified random sample of cognitively normal participants. Of these, 1,928 completed the scan. A 2017 microbleed analysis kept 1,677 non-demented participants with usable data: 1,072 cognitively normal and 605 with mild cognitive impairment, 60% women, mean age 76 years, about a quarter Black participants from Jackson. In that sample 398 people had definite microbleeds, 262 strictly lobar and 136 deep or mixed. The sampling scheme oversamples cognitive impairment, so the scanned group is not representative of the full cohort without weights.
Acquisition
All sites used 3 T Siemens scanners. The protocol included ADNI-style 3D MPRAGE and FLAIR and an axial 2D T2* gradient echo (TR/TE 200/20 ms, 3.3 mm slices, 256 x 224 matrix, about 5 minutes).
Annotations
Trained image analysts marked microbleeds (hypointense lesions up to 10 mm) on the T2* GRE as definite or possible, and a radiologist (K. Kantarci or C. R. Jack) confirmed them. Agreement on definite versus not definite was 85% (kappa 0.68). Microbleeds were classed as lobar, deep or infratentorial. Infarcts were read on FLAIR the same way, white matter hyperintensities were measured semi-automatically, and regional volumes come from FreeSurfer. Reads are counts and locations per participant; no lesion masks are described.
Known limitations
- Images are not openly available; access needs an ARIC investigator partnership and an approved proposal.
- Counts by sex, age and cognitive status are published only for the 1,677-person analysis sample.
- The 2017 analysis used only definite microbleeds; possible ones are rated but not counted above.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 1,928 subjects.
Sex
- Female 1,006 100%
Covers 1,006 of 1,928 subjects.
Age
mean 76± 5No age bins reported.
Condition
subjects, values can overlap
- Healthy control 1,072 56%
- Mild cognitive impairment 605 31%
- Cerebral microbleeds 398 21%
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
A research proposal is reviewed and approved
ARIC Data and Materials Distribution Agreement
Signed by the recipient institution after ARIC approves a manuscript or ancillary study proposal. Data may only be used for that research project, with IRB review, and may not be passed on in any form. Manuscripts go to ARIC for review, results are reported back yearly, and all data are destroyed when the agreement ends (at the latest after five years).
External investigators need an approved ARIC manuscript or ancillary study proposal and a fee for dataset preparation. The DMDA defines Data to include MRI scans; the ARIC website does not say how image files are delivered.
What you can do
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Conditional
- Conditional
What you can share
- No
- No
- Share trained models Not stated
What you must do
- Yes
- Share alike No
- Yes
- Yes
- Yes
- Release code No
- Yes
- Yes
Limits
- Yes
- No
Citation
Graff-Radford J, Simino J, Kantarci K, et al. Neuroimaging correlates of cerebral microbleeds: The ARIC Study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities). Stroke 48(11):2964-2972 (2017). doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.018336
All numbers
Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.
| Measure | Breakdown | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | total visit 5 participants selected for MRI who completed the scan | 1,928 | graffradford2017 Methods, Participants |
| Subjects | condition=healthy cognitively normal; analysis sample of 1677 non-demented participants | 1,072 | graffradford2017 Table 1 |
| Subjects | condition=mci mild cognitive impairment; analysis sample of 1677 | 605 | graffradford2017 Table 1 |
| Subjects | condition=cerebral_microbleeds sum of 136 deep or mixed and 262 strictly lobar (disjoint groups, definite CMBs only); analysis sample of 1677 | 398 | graffradford2017 Table 1 |
| Subjects | sex=female analysis sample of 1677 | 1,006 | graffradford2017 Table 1 |
| Mean age | total analysis sample of 1677 | 76 | graffradford2017 Table 1 |
| Age SD | total analysis sample of 1677 | 5 | graffradford2017 Table 1 |
Sources
The keys used in the table above.
- graffradford2017 Graff-Radford et al. 2017, Neuroimaging correlates of cerebral microbleeds, The ARIC Study, Stroke (PMC5685663) paper
- aric-obtain-data ARIC website, Obtain/Submit Data website