Collaborative Research: Inverse-Consistent Determination of Effective Young's Modulus for Human Lung

该奖项的研究目标是使用计算工具，放射成像和图像处理方法的组合，以非侵入性方式确定人类肺部一致的有效弹性特性。这些数据目前还不存在，将能够准确模拟靶向放射治疗的肺动力学。根据该奖项进行的研究将从计算机断层扫描成像中再现肺部几何形状，通过计算和图像处理工具模拟肺部的气流和空间变形，并迭代估计使用计算工具预测的已知气流和变形值的有效组织弹性。通过与临床专家建立的手动标志跟踪进行比较，将验证估计的组织弹性特性。如果这项研究成功，将显著提高人体组织结构生物力学特性的知识基础，并建立组织与广泛的临床程序之间的性能-性能关系。该方法可用于放疗临床工作流程，旨在跟踪肿瘤运动并开发改进的放疗治疗，最终改善患者的治疗结果并降低总成本。从这项研究中获得的知识可以扩展到其他解剖部位，包括心血管疾病中生物力学应力诱导的斑块破裂，心脏组织弹性的估计，并解决成像方式的变化。该奖项是多学科的，涉及三个机构的科学家，工程师和临床医生之间的合作。教育计划的重点是培养下一代科学家和工程师，为他们提供机会，解决跨学科具有实际重要性的挑战性问题。本科生和研究生将参与研究，并将受益于研究成果融入课堂教学和多学科培训在不同领域。

The research objective of this award is to use a combination of computational tools, radiological imaging and image processing methods to determine consistent effective elastic properties of human lung in a non-invasive manner. Such data, which do not currently exist, will enable accurate simulation of lung dynamics for targeted radiotherapy. Studies conducted under this award will reproduce lung geometry from computed tomography imaging, simulate by means of computational and image processing tools the airflow and spatial deformation of the lungs, and iteratively estimate the effective tissue elasticity for known values of airflow and deformation predicted using the computational tool. The estimated tissue elastic properties will be validated by comparison with manual landmark tracking established by a clinical expert.This research, if successful, will significantly improve knowledge base on biomechanical properties of human tissue structures, and establish a property-performance relationship between the tissues and a wide range of clinical procedures. The approach could be used in a radiotherapy clinical workflow designed to track tumor motion and develop improved radiotherapy treatment that ultimately improves patient's treatment outcome and reduces overall cost. The knowledge gained from this study could be extended to other anatomical sites including biomechanical stress-induced plaque rupture in cardiovascular disease, estimation of cardiac tissue elasticity, and to address variations in imaging modality. This award is multidisciplinary, involving collaboration among scientists, engineers and clinicians at three institutions. The education plan focuses on nurturing the next generation of scientists and engineers by providing them with an opportunity to work on challenging problems of practical importance across disciplines. Undergraduate and graduate students will be engaged in the research, and will benefit from integration of research findings into classroom instruction and the multidisciplinary training in diverse fields.