British scientists have launched the world's largest health imaging study to internal organs to shed light on how the body works from the inside, which will help doctors treat diseases in the future, before they actually happen.

Scanning internal organs like the brain, bones, heart, abdominal fat and carotid arteries of 100,000 participants of the UK Biobank, could help unlock information on certain risk factors of diseases, detect earliest signs of illnesses and assist doctors develop new kinds of treatments.

Funded by the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Wellcome Trust, the study would create the largest collection of internal organ scans. These scans can help revolutionize the way doctors study various diseases including heart attacks, cancers, stroke, arthritis and dementia.

The $60.7 million-worth project will include analyzing scans alongside data already gathered from the UK Biobank. The data, encompassing information from half a million participants, includes information on their lifestyle, height, weight, diet, cognitive function and physical activity. It also includes information on genetic data from samples of blood.

"This very large number of participants involved in the multimodal imaging study is impressive enough," said UK Biobank's chief scientist, Cathie Sudlow.

"But what makes it truly transformational is the opportunity to combine the rich imaging data with the wealth of other information already available or being collected from participants, particularly their health and diseases during follow-up for many years to come," she added.

Preventing Diseases

The project could help doctors in years' time, to see what happens in the organs of the body even before diseases struck. For instance, it could show what happens in the brains years before dementia, stroke or other brain-related diseases happen and diagnosed.

This could help scientists understand the physiology of each organ, what happens in them and develop new ways to treat or better, prevent the disease from actually happening.

Preventing Fractures, Shedding Light On Brain Conditions

Providing a better picture of the brain, how it works and its wiring, could provide valuable data into common brain diseases like Alzheimer's disease, the most common type of dementia. Since this disease is untreatable and irreversible, preventing its occurrence may become a great help especially to those who are at greater risk of developing this neurodegenerative disease.

Aside from dementia, it could also capture early markers of rare neurological diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common type of motor neuron disease. Detecting early signs and risk factors could help initiate early treatment and modifying risk factors through lifestyle changes, in the hope that these could prevent the disease from progressing into a full-blown, untreatable condition.

Aside from brain scans, the imaging study aims to study bone scans too. Scientists hope the study would lead to the prevention of bone fractures as a result of osteoporosis, the thinning and weakening of the bones. The scans could shed light on risk factors and markers of osteoporosis.

Provide Insight On Heart Disease

The study aims to provide information about the heart in great detail. Scientists will have more information of how diseases of the heart forms, the risk factors and what can be done to prevent them from progressing.

Aside from heart health, the scans will also provide detailed information about fat and muscle mass distribution that will give a better understanding on related conditions like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, increased serum cholesterol levels and some cancers.

Photo: Akira Ohgaki | Flickr