MESA Exam 6 Brain MRI
Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Atrial Fibrillation ancillary study brain MRI
3 T brain MRI of 1,062 older adults from a multi-ethnic US community cohort, scanned 2018 to 2019 with T1w, T2w, FLAIR, diffusion, ASL, multi-echo SWI/QSM and fMRI. Available through an approved MESA proposal and a signed DMDA.
Overview
The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) is a US community cohort of 6,814 adults aged 45 to 84 at enrolment in 2000 to 2002, free of known cardiovascular disease at the time. During its sixth exam, an ancillary study on atrial fibrillation combined ambulatory heart rhythm monitoring with a research brain MRI. This entry covers that brain MRI collection. It is not a downloadable dataset: outside researchers submit a proposal to the MESA Coordinating Center, need a senior MESA author as sponsor, and sign a Data and Materials Distribution Agreement for the approved project.
Composition
1,062 participants completed brain MRI in 2018 and 2019, 32 of them without the cardiac monitoring. After excluding scans with large structural lesions, failed quality control or missing images, 1,036 had complete measures. In that group the mean age was 72 years (SD 8), 549 were women, and participants identified as Black (259), Chinese-American (155), Hispanic (199) or White (423).
Acquisition
Scans were done at six MESA field centres on 3 T Siemens Prisma and Skyra systems with a common protocol supervised by the University of Pennsylvania Brain MRI Reading Center. Sequences include 1 mm isotropic 3D T1w, T2w and FLAIR, 2D diffusion tensor imaging, 3D pseudo-continuous ASL, 3D multi-echo gradient echo for SWI and quantitative susceptibility mapping, and resting-state and breath-hold fMRI.
Annotations
The protocol paper reports derived brain, grey and white matter volumes, white matter hyperintensity volume and fractional anisotropy. The DEEPMIR study (Rashid et al. 2021) manually segmented cerebral microbleeds and non-haemorrhagic basal ganglia iron deposits on SWI, QSM and T2w in a convenience sample of 24 participants, chosen for suspected microbleeds, and published code but not the labels. No source says these labels are distributed. The DMDA forbids recipients to pass on data or derivatives and asks them to return Resultant Data to MESA, so the subset is not a separate entry.
Known limitations
- Which image files the Coordinating Center releases for an approved project is not published.
- The two papers describe the scanners differently: DEEPMIR names two Skyra and four Prisma Fit systems at six sites, the protocol paper names Prisma at five centres and Skyra at two.
- Sex and age are reported only for the 1,036 participants with complete measures.
- The sample is not a clinical cohort, so microbleeds and other lesions are sparse.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 1,062 subjects.
Sex
- Female 549 100%
Covers 549 of 1,062 subjects.
Age
mean 72± 8No age bins reported.
Scanner vendor
subjects
- Siemens Healthineers 1,062 100%
Field strength
subjects
- 3 T 1,062 100%
Country
subjects
- United States 1,062 100%
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
MESA Data and Materials Distribution Agreement
Signed per research project between the recipient institution, the MESA Coordinating Center and NHLBI after a MESA proposal is approved. Use is limited to the approved project, IRB review and participant consent; data and derivatives may not be passed on, results go back to MESA, and data are destroyed when the agreement ends.
Access needs an approved MESA paper or ancillary study proposal with a senior MESA sponsor, then a DMDA for that project. The DMDA covers images; the Coordinating Center does not publish which brain MRI files it releases.
What you can do
- Conditional
- 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
Austin TR, Nasrallah IM, Erus G, et al. Association of Brain Volumes and White Matter Injury With Race, Ethnicity, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. J Am Heart Assoc 11(7), e023159 (2022). doi:10.1161/JAHA.121.023159
All numbers
Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.
| Measure | Breakdown | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | total participants who completed brain MRI in 2018 to 2019 | 1,062 | austin2022 Methods (Study Population) |
| Subjects | field_strength=3 | 1,062 | austin2022 Methods (Brain MRI Acquisition and Processing) |
| Subjects | vendor=siemens Prisma VE11C and Skyra VD11B | 1,062 | austin2022 Methods (Brain MRI Acquisition and Processing) |
| Subjects | country=US | 1,062 | austin2022 Methods (Study Population) |
| Subjects | sex=female counted among the 1036 participants with complete MRI measures | 549 | austin2022 Table 1 |
| Mean age | total at Exam 6 (2016 to 2018) for the 1036 participants with complete MRI measures | 72 | austin2022 Table 1 |
| Age SD | total same 1036 participants | 8 | austin2022 Table 1 |
Sources
The keys used in the table above.
- austin2022 Austin et al. 2022, J Am Heart Assoc (PMC9075451), MESA brain MRI protocol and participants paper
- rashid2021 Rashid et al. 2021, Scientific Reports (DEEPMIR, PMC8266884) paper
- mesa-publications-page MESA website, Publications page with the invitation to outside investigators and the DMDA website