A methodology to generate structured computational grids from DICOM data: application to a patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) model

This study presents the generation of a multi-block structured grid on a real abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) acquired from Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) data. With the use of a computed tomography exam (or medical images in standard DICOM format), the shape of a human organ is extracted and a structured computational grid is created. The structured grid generation is done by utilising Floater's and Gopalsamy et al.'s algorithm. The proposed methodology is applied to the AAA case, but it may also be applied to other human organs, enabling the scientist to develop an advanced patient-specific model. More importantly, the proposed methodology provides a precise reconstruction of the human organs, which is required in an AAA, where small variations in the geometry may alter the flow field, the stresses exerted on the walls and finally the rupture risk of the aneurysm.

[1]  Patrick Amestoy,et al.  Hybrid scheduling for the parallel solution of linear systems , 2006, Parallel Comput..

[2]  Ender A. Finol,et al.  Compliant biomechanics of abdominal aortic aneurysms: A fluid-structure interaction study , 2007 .

[3]  Patrick Amestoy,et al.  A Fully Asynchronous Multifrontal Solver Using Distributed Dynamic Scheduling , 2001, SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl..

[4]  Milan Sonka,et al.  Three-dimensional thrombus segmentation in abdominal aortic aneurysms using graph search based on a triangular mesh , 2010, Comput. Biol. Medicine.

[5]  P. Worth Longest,et al.  Evaluation of hexahedral, prismatic and hybrid mesh styles for simulating respiratory aerosol dynamics , 2008 .

[6]  Alexander D. Shkolnik,et al.  Fluid-structure interaction in abdominal aortic aneurysms: effects of asymmetry and wall thickness , 2005, Biomedical engineering online.

[7]  Panagiotis Neofytou,et al.  Vascular wall flow-induced forces in a progressively enlarged aneurysm model , 2008, Computer methods in biomechanics and biomedical engineering.

[8]  M. Walsh,et al.  Identification of rupture locations in patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysms using experimental and computational techniques. , 2010, Journal of biomechanics.

[9]  Mark F Fillinger,et al.  Prediction of rupture risk in abdominal aortic aneurysm during observation: wall stress versus diameter. , 2003, Journal of vascular surgery.

[10]  Diane M. A. Poirier,et al.  ADVANCES IN THE CGNS DATABASE STANDARD FOR AERODYNAMICS AND CFD , 2000 .

[11]  Martin Reimers,et al.  Mean value coordinates in 3D , 2005, Comput. Aided Geom. Des..

[12]  P. Longest,et al.  Effects of mesh style and grid convergence on particle deposition in bifurcating airway models with comparisons to experimental data. , 2007, Medical engineering & physics.

[13]  M J Fagan,et al.  A comparative study of aortic wall stress using finite element analysis for ruptured and non-ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms. , 2004, European journal of vascular and endovascular surgery : the official journal of the European Society for Vascular Surgery.

[14]  Kenji Shimada,et al.  Three-dimensional shape reconstruction of abdominal aortic aneurysm , 2009, Comput. Aided Des..

[15]  David A. Vorp,et al.  Mechanical wall stress in abdominal aortic aneurysm: influence of diameter and asymmetry. , 1998, Journal of vascular surgery.

[16]  Tomas Möller,et al.  A fast triangle-triangle intersection test , 1997 .

[17]  D. Vorp,et al.  3D reconstruction and manufacture of real abdominal aortic aneurysms: from CT scan to silicone model. , 2008, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[18]  Clement Kleinstreuer,et al.  Biofluid Dynamics: Principles and Selected Applications , 2006 .

[19]  Yasushi Ito,et al.  Structured Grid Generation over NURBS and Facetted Surface Patches by Reparametrization , 2005, IMR.

[20]  Clement Kleinstreuer,et al.  A comparison between different asymmetric abdominal aortic aneurysm morphologies employing computational fluid-structure interaction analysis , 2007 .

[21]  B J B M Wolters,et al.  A patient-specific computational model of fluid-structure interaction in abdominal aortic aneurysms. , 2005, Medical engineering & physics.

[22]  Tomas Akenine-Möller,et al.  A Fast Triangle-Triangle Intersection Test , 1997, J. Graphics, GPU, & Game Tools.

[23]  William E. Lorensen,et al.  The NA-MIC Kit: ITK, VTK, pipelines, grids and 3D slicer as an open platform for the medical image computing community , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006..

[24]  C. M. Scotti,et al.  Wall stress and flow dynamics in abdominal aortic aneurysms: finite element analysis vs. fluid–structure interaction , 2008, Computer methods in biomechanics and biomedical engineering.

[25]  Bharat K. Soni,et al.  Handbook of Grid Generation , 1998 .

[26]  M. Webster,et al.  Wall stress distribution on three-dimensionally reconstructed models of human abdominal aortic aneurysm. , 2000, Journal of vascular surgery.

[27]  Michael S. Floater,et al.  Parametrization and smooth approximation of surface triangulations , 1997, Comput. Aided Geom. Des..

[28]  Elena S. Di Martino,et al.  Fluid-structure interaction within realistic three-dimensional models of the aneurysmatic aorta as a guidance to assess the risk of rupture of the aneurysm. , 2001, Medical engineering & physics.

[29]  A. Hofman,et al.  Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta in older adults. The Rotterdam Study. , 1995, American journal of epidemiology.