The goal of this project is to establish a web accessible structural and functional atlas of the normal and pathological heart for clinical, research and educational purposes. Inaugurated with a substantial number of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) examinations, together with derived functional analyses and associated clinical information, the Cardiac Atlas Project (CAP) database will be extendible to allow inclusion of data from coronary angiography, ECG, histology, blood proteins, peptides and other serological data, and genomic information in the longer term. An initial goal of the project is to facilitate statistical analysis across population groups of regional heart shape and wall motion characteristics, via the application of parametric mathematical modeling tools. The parametric modeling tools and associated ontological schema will also facilitate data fusion between different imaging protocols and modalities as well as other data sources. The CAP will be developed in collaboration with the Center for Computational Biology (CCB) at UCLA, and will exploit and extend the brain mapping infrastructure developed by the CCB. The Cardiac Atlas Project will advance the aims of the National Centers for Biological Computing (NCBC) collaboration program by extending the computational atlases of the Center for Computational Biology to another organ: the heart.

The proposed research has three primary objectives. The first objective is to establish a database of CMR examinations and develop the necessary infrastructure and protocols. To attain critical mass, the database will be initially populated with CMR data and derived functional analyses from two large studies: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) involving ~5,000 asymptomatic people, and the DEfibrillaTors to REduce Risk by Magnetic Resonance ImagiNg Evaluation (DETERMINE) study of 10,000 patients with myocardial infarction (see attached letters of support). The second objective is to develop standardized procedures for the contribution, curation, archival, classification, and sharing of CMR data and derived analyses, compatible with existing tools developed for the brain by the CCB, and for the heart by the Auckland Cardiome Project. The third objective is to provide open source software for the mapping and analysis of cardiac morphometry, with particular regard to spatio-temporal characteristics of regional heart wall motion.

These objectives require a unique synergy of expertise across many fields and disciplines, which is provided by the collaboration partners. In particular, the University of Auckland is a world leader in CMR analysis and integrative modeling methodologies, provided by theAuckland MRI Research Group (AMRG), as well as computational biomechanics modeling tools and standards-based data sharing systems, provided by the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI). Auckland is unique in the world in combining these two areas of expertise. This project will exploit and significantly extend the modeling and analysis tools already developed at Auckland, in the areas of CMR analysis and modeling methodologies, standardized protocols for the encapsulation of physiological data, and sharing and curation of mathematical models and derived data. These tools will be complimented by the expertise in cardiac radiology provided by the UCLA Diagnostic CardioVascular Imaging Laboratory (DCVI), and the anatomical mapping, web based interfaces and data fusion tools developed by the UCLA Center for Computational Biology (CCB).