Magnetic resonance image processing and structured grid generation of a human abdominal bifurcation

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) offers a non-invasive approach to the acquisition of anatomically accurate human arterial structure. Combining the latest computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques with clinical data from MRA, the detailed haemodynamics information in the human circulation system can be obtained. In this paper, a novel computer method is presented, which generates automatically a computational grid for a human abdominal bifurcation from a set of conventional MRA images. The method covers the complete sequence from MR image segmentation, 3-D model construction, grid generation, to grid quality evaluation. Results demonstrate that the computer program developed is capable of generating a good quality grid for human arterial bifurcations from MRA images with minimum user input. The resultant grid can be used directly for further computer simulation of the flow.