Automated Cardiac MRI Analysis Pipeline

All CMR scans were completed in dedicated UKB imaging centres using 1.5-T scanners (MAGNETOM Aera, Syngo Platform VD13A, Siemens Healthcare) under pre-defined acquisition protocols [19 ]. Standard long-axis images and a short-axis stack covering both ventricles from base to apex were captured using balanced steady-state free precession sequence [19 ]. CMR examinations of the first 5065 UKB participants were assessed manually using CVI42 post-processing software (version 5.1.1, Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc.) [20 (link)]. This analysis set was used to develop a fully automated quality-controlled pipeline and extract the contours for the 32,121 CMR studies [21 (link), 22 (link)].
The following conventional CMR indices were considered during our analysis: LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), LV end-systolic volume (LVESV), RV end-diastolic volume (RVEDV), RV end-systolic volume (RVESV), LV stroke volume (LVSV), RV stroke volume (RVSV), LV ejection fraction (LVEF), RV ejection fraction (RVEF), LV mass (LVM). For ease of interpretation, we gave LV and RV ventricular volumes and masses in body surface area standardised format.