Minimal Interval Resonance Imaging in Alzheimer's Disease (MIRIAD)

The MIRIAD dataset is a database of volumetric MRI brain-scans of Alzheimer's sufferers and healthy elderly people. It consists of 708 scans, with information on gender, age and MMSE scores. Many scans were collected of each participant at intervals from 2 weeks to 2 years, the study was designed to investigate the feasibility of using MRI as an outcome measure  for clinical trials of Alzheimer's treatments. Including:

1. To find the minimal interval over which trials would need to be conducted.
2. To assess whether combining more than two scanning time points would increase statistical power and, if so, the optimal combination and timing of scans for trials of varying lengths.
3. To provide a means of assessing the reproducibility of techniques within a single day and over short intervals where changes in individual's hydration and scanner fluctuations, but not pathological atrophy, might be expected.

These scans, together with demographic and psychological data, are now publicly available in anonymised form to aid researchers in developing new techniques for the analysis of serially acquired MRI.

Demographics and Scanning Timepoints

All subjects were requested to attend seven imaging visits at 0, 2, 6, 14, 26, 38 and 52 weeks from baseline. 39 subjects who completed all these visits during the study attended a further scan at 18 months, 22 of these had a further scan at 24 months. At 0, 6 and 38 weeks two back-to-back scans were conducted.

All scans were conducted on the same 1.5 T Signa MRI scanner (GE Medical systems, Milwaukee, WI) and acquired by the same radiographer. Three-dimensional T1-weighted images were acquired with an IR-FSPGR (inversion recovery prepared fast spoiled gradient recalled) sequence, field of view 24 cm, 256 × 256 matrix, 124 1.5 mm coronal partitions, TR 15 ms, TE 5.4 ms, flip angle 15°, TI 650 ms.

Data use agreement

All data is available through the MIRIAD XNAT database.

By registering and downloading data from this site, users agree to the following:

1. Users shall respect restrictions of access to sensitive data. Users will not attempt to identify the individuals whose images are included in the data set.
2. Redistribution of these data to third parties is not permitted without prior agreement.
3. Whilst every effort will be made to ensure the quality and completeness of the data, this cannot be guaranteed. Users employ these data at their own risk.
4. Users must acknowledge the use of these data and data derived from this dataset when publicly presenting any findings or algorithms that benefited from their use. Such presentations include but are not limited to papers, books, book chapters, conference posters, and talks.
5. When publishing findings that benefit from these data, users agree to:

• Reference this publication, describing the release of the data: Malone IB, Cash D, Ridgway GR, Macmanus DG, Ourselin S, Fox NC, Schott JM. MIRIAD-Public release of a multiple time point Alzheimer's MR imaging dataset. Neuroimage. 2012 Dec 28;70C:33-36 doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.12.044.
• Include this statement in the acknowledgements: "Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the MIRIAD database. The MIRIAD investigators did not participate in analysis or writing of this report. The MIRIAD dataset is made available through the support of the UK Alzheimer's Society (Grant RF116). The original data collection was funded through an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline (Grant 6GKC)."
• Send a copy of the accepted manuscript to drc-miriad@ucl.ac.uk

Downloading the Data

Scans

Images can be downloaded from the XNAT database by selecting the MIRIAD project followed by the Download Images action on the right.

Psychology and demographic data

After logging in, on the MIRIAD XNAT page add the ClinicalAsessment and MR Sessions tabs if they aren't present by using the SELECT drop-down menu. The full dataset can be saved by selecting Spreadsheet in the Options drop-down menu at the right-hand side of the listing. Your browser should offer to save or open the resulting CSV file.

ClinicalAssessment gives MMSE for each visit and CDR score and sum of boxes at screening for Alzheimer's participants.

MR Sessions lists age at each scan (to two decimal places), group (AD/controls) and gender.

Blinding codes

The blinding codes from the MICCAI 2012 atrophy measurement challenge are available as a csv file.

Publications

An overview of the MIRIAD demographics and publications is published in Malone et al. 2013 NeuroImage Volume 70 Pages 33–36 doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.12.044

The following list of publications which have made use of the data may be of use to researchers with particular interests:

Acknowledgements

This dataset is made available through the support of the UK Alzheimer's Society. The original data collection was funded through an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline and funding from the UK Alzheimer's Society (to Dr Schott) and the Medical Research Council (to Professor Fox). Professor Ourselin receives funding from the EPSRC (EP/H046410/1) and the Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (CBRC) Strategic Investment Award (Ref. 168). Dr Ridgway is supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number MR/J014257/1]. This work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia based at University College London Hospitals (UCLH), University College London (UCL). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The Dementia Research Centre is an Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) Coordinating Centre. The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust [grant number 091593/Z/10/Z]. We are grateful to the MIRIAD participants and funders for their willingness to share these data.