Incidental findings and their handling in the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioimage study (SCAPIS)

Abstract

The Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS) combines the use of new imaging technologies, large-scale proteomics/metabolomics/genomics, and epidemiological analyses to extensively characterize a Swedish cohort of 30,000 men and women aged between 50 and 64 years. Its main aims are to improve risk prediction and to optimize our ability to study mechanisms of cardiopulmonary diseases. SCAPIS is currently recruiting at six sites in Sweden, and a pilot study was conducted in 2012 to test the feasibility of the comprehensive study protocol. In the planning phase, it was recognized that the detailed phenotyping used in SCAPIS would identify a large number of clinical findings in need of medical attention. This was confirmed by evaluation of results from the pilot study. Here we focus on pulmonary nodules and asymptomatic coronary artery stenosis. These clinical features were observed in a large number of participants, and the clinical handing and prognosis related to these observations are unclear. They thus posed great challenges for the study in their practical and ethical handling. This chapter describes how we developed procedures to handle these findings based on existing evidence and expert consensus as well as deliberations on ethical issues.