The Framingham Heart Study: Populational CT-based phenotyping in the lungs and mediastinum

Abstract

The Framingham Heart Study (FHS) is one of the largest and established longitudinal populational cohorts. CT cohorts of the FHS since 2002 provided a unique opportunity to assess non-cardiac thoracic imaging findings. This review deals with image-based phenotyping studies from recent major publications regarding interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs), pulmonary cysts, emphysema, pulmonary nodules, pleural plaques, normal spectrum of the thymus, and anterior mediastinal masses, concluding with the discussion of future directions of FHS CT cohorts studies in the era of radiomics and artificial intelligence.

Keywords

• Framingham Heart Study
• CT
• Lung
• Thymus
• Interstitial lung abnormalities
• Pleural plaques