Atlas-based transfer of boundary conditions for biomechanical simulation

An environment composed of different types of living tissues (such as the abdominal cavity) reveals a high complexity of boundary conditions, which are the attachments (e.g. connective tissues, ligaments) connecting different anatomical structures. Together with the material properties, the boundary conditions have a significant influence on the mechanical response of the organs, however corresponding correct mechanical modeling remains a challenging task, as the connective structures are difficult to identify in certain standard imaging modalities. In this paper, we present a method for automatic modeling of boundary conditions in deformable anatomical structures, which is an important step in patient-specific biomechanical simulations. The method is based on a statistical atlas which gathers data defining the connective structures attached to the organ of interest. In order to transfer the information stored in the atlas to a specific patient, the atlas is registered to the patient data using a physics-based technique and the resulting boundary conditions are defined according to the mean position and variance available in the atlas. The method is evaluated using abdominal scans of ten patients. The results show that the atlas provides a sufficient information about the boundary conditions which can be reliably transferred to a specific patient. The boundary conditions obtained by the atlas-based transfer show a good match both with actual segmented boundary conditions and in terms of mechanical response of deformable organs.