A methodology to generate structured computational grids from DICOM data: application to a patient-specific abdominal...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging Analysis
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Accurate patient-specific models are essential for understanding abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) biomechanics.
• Existing methods may lack the precision required for analyzing critical geometric variations in AAA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a methodology for generating multi-block structured grids from medical imaging data.
• To apply this methodology for precise reconstruction of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).

Main Methods:

• Utilized Floater's and Gopalsamy et al.'s algorithm for structured grid generation.
• Extracted organ geometry from Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) data, specifically computed tomography (CT) scans.
• Applied the methodology to a real abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) case.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated a multi-block structured grid on a patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).
• Demonstrated the capability of the methodology for precise organ reconstruction from DICOM data.
• The method is adaptable for other human organs beyond AAA.

Conclusions:

• The proposed methodology enables accurate, patient-specific modeling of human organs, particularly AAA.
• Precise geometric reconstruction is vital for analyzing AAA flow dynamics, wall stresses, and rupture risk.
• This approach facilitates advanced computational modeling for personalized medicine.