With the ICONIC project, the IHU ICAN aims to create an advanced cardiac and hepatic imaging database for reference populations in France, backed up by the national Constances cohort (INSERM).
Using non-invasive examinations, this unique imaging data will make it possible to analyse the structure and function of the heart, vessels and liver on a scale not currently available in France.
The ICONIC project, born out of a lack of data
Advances in imaging techniques are now making it possible to explore new and highly innovative avenues of research. Imaging now plays a central role in the in vivo understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms, enabling earlier detection of diseases, assessment of individual risk of developing a disease and of developing a severe form, and thus improving patient care by developing personalised medicine.
However, there is a lack of cardiovascular and liver imaging data in the general population, and even more so in the 20-40 age group. People under 45 are poorly represented in internationally comparable population studies.
In response to this situation, the ICAN IHU is setting up the ICONIC project. This project will enable new non-invasive imaging biomarkers to be validated, by creating a database accessible to the entire community of specialist researchers.
ICONIC: an open, qualitative, long-term and longitudinal database
The first objective of the ICONIC project will be to generate normative data by age and sex category from the analysis of MRI and echocardiographic images in the French population. This normative data could be used as a basis for validating new imaging biomarkers and as a control for fundamental or clinical studies using human data.
The new diagnostic and prognostic tools are intended to become multiparametric by integrating clinical, biological and imaging data.
This database will help to decompartmentalise medicine and will be open to doctors and researchers, enabling French teams to collaborate on current and future international population imaging projects.
The pilot phase of the project will involve 2,400 participants from the Constances cohort (Inserm), with a balanced representation in terms of age and sex (200 women and 200 men for each decade).
The volunteers included in the study will undergo a series of biological and imaging examinations, in particular on the ICAN Imaging platform of the ICAN IHU, located in the Cardiology Institute of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, for explorations such as myocardial MRI and transthoracic echocardiography.
A genuine tool for epidemiological research, the Constances ‘generalist’ epidemiological cohort is made up of a representative sample of 200,000 volunteers aged between 18 and 69, included between 2012 and 2019 and attending the Social Security Health Examination Centres (CES).
Aims of the project
- To identify new biomarkers of inflammation in patients suffering from arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, or carrying the mutation(s) responsible,
- Determine the diagnostic value of the new biomarkers (circulating and imaging) identified in relation to current diagnostic criteria
- Improve the diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy to speed up patient management.
Patient benefits
- The benefits are mainly societal , as the creation of this population-based reference atlas of cardiometabolic imaging will provide a better understanding of metabolic diseases and their development.
Duration of the study
- Total duration of the pilot phase of the study: 5 years
- The study will be carried out in 2 phases : an initial single-centre pilot phase involving young volunteers aged between 20 and 40, and a second national phase.
Overall budget: €6.8 million
The project has received major support from the MSDAVENIR Endowment Fund, as well as funding from the Île-de-France region under the SESAME “Scientific and technological equipment and platforms” scheme, which is part of the regionalised Programme d’Investissement Avenir (SESAME filière PIA).
Project leaders
- Principal investigator : Alban REDHEUIL, ICT Cardiovascular and Thoracic Imaging, Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière, APHP, Sorbonne University
- Scientific committee
- Marie ZINS, Head of the CONSTANCES cohort INSERM UMS-11
- Nadjia KACHENOURA, DR Laboratoire d’Imagerie Biomédicale INSERM/CNRS/SU
- Vlad RATZIU, Hepatology Department, CHU Pitié-Salpêtrière APHP.SU, La Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, APHP, Sorbonne University
- Olivier LUCIDARME, Specialised Imaging and Emergency Department, La Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, APHP, Sorbonne University
- Aron Ariel COHEN, Cardiology Department, Hôpital Saint Antoine, APHP, Sorbonne University
