Integrating Automated Mesh Development into the NA-MIC Toolkit

描述（由申请人提供）：肌肉骨骼有限元（FE）分析是骨科相关研究中的宝贵工具。虽然它提供了重要的生物力学见解，但与人体几何复杂结构建模相关的需求往往限制了其实用性。处理医学图像数据集以识别感兴趣的不同解剖结构所需的时间进一步加剧了通常令人望而却步的模型开发时间。然而，这个过程是模型开发的必要预处理步骤。因此，文献中报告的大多数分析均涉及“平均”骨几何结构。我们的研究计划的广泛目标是集成和扩展方法，将样本/患者特定的有限元（FE）模型的开发自动化到NA-MIC工具包中。为了实现这一目标，我们建议合并独特的技术来自动化图像数据集分割;材料属性提取和分配;以及直接FE模型开发（自动网格化）。虽然感兴趣骨骼的直接物理扫描将用于验证自动图像分割程序，但实验尸体接触应力测量将提供验证FE接触公式的标准。此外，我们的软件包生成的FE模型将与通过商业预处理包创建的相同骨的模型进行比较。虽然上肢的骨/关节代表本申请中提出的主要感兴趣结构，但该工具将适用于许多骨科应用。除了将NA-MIC工具包扩展到大脑之外，拟议的项目还将扩展目前可用的图像分割例程和有限元网格化例程。该建议将最终产生上肢各种关节的特定于WEBEN的有限元模型。这些模型将使我们能够提供有关负荷转移的信息，正常关节的特征，并在未来证明，例如，韧带不稳定，创伤后错位，骨折和各种外科手术的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Musculoskeletal finite element (FE) analysis is an invaluable tool in orthopedic-related research. While it has provided significant biomechanical insight, the demands associated with modeling the geometrically complex structures of the human body often limit its utility. The often-prohibitive amount of model development time is further compounded by the time required to process medical image datasets to identify the distinct anatomical structures of interest. Yet this process is a necessary preprocessing step for model development. As a result, most of the analyses reported in the literature refer to 'average' bone geometry. The broad objective of our research plan is to integrate and expand methods to automate the development of specimen- / patient-specific finite element (FE) models into the NA-MIC toolkit. In pursuit of this objective we propose to merge unique technologies to automate image dataset segmentation; material property extraction and assignment; and direct FE model development (automated meshing). While direct physical scans of the bones of interest will be used to validate the automated image segmentation routines, experimental cadaveric contact stress measurements will provide a standard against which to validate the FE contact formulations. Furthermore, the FE models generated by our software package will be compared to models of the same bone(s) created via a commercial pre-processing package. While the bones/joints of the upper extremity represent the primary structures of interest proposed in this application, the tools will be applicable to many orthopedic applications. In addition to expanding the NA-MIC toolkit beyond the brain, the proposed project will expand the image segmentation routines and finite element meshing routines currently available. This proposal will ultimately yield specimen-specific FE models of the various joints of the upper extremity. Such models will position us to provide information about the load transfer, characteristics of the normal joints and in the future to demonstrate, for example, the effects of ligamentous instabilities, posttraumatic misalignments, fractures, and various surgical procedures.