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ImageParser: a tool for finite element generation from three-dimensional medical images
1Center for Computer-Aided Design, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. huiming@uiuc.edu <huiming@uiuc.edu>
Background:
The finite element method (FEM) is a powerful mathematical tool to simulate and visualize the mechanical deformation of tissues and organs during medical examinations or interventions. It is yet a challenge to build up an FEM mesh directly from a volumetric image partially because the regions (or structures) of interest (ROIs) may be irregular and fuzzy.
Methods:
A software package, ImageParser, is developed to generate an FEM mesh from 3-D tomographic medical images. This software uses a semi-automatic method to detect ROIs from the context of image including neighboring tissues and organs, completes segmentation of different tissues, and meshes the organ into elements.
Results:
The ImageParser is shown to build up an FEM model for simulating the mechanical responses of the breast based on 3-D CT images. The breast is compressed by two plate paddles under an overall displacement as large as 20% of the initial distance between the paddles. The strain and tangential Young's modulus distributions are specified for the biomechanical analysis of breast tissues.
Conclusion:
The ImageParser can successfully exact the geometry of ROIs from a complex medical image and generate the FEM mesh with customer-defined segmentation information.
