Accelerated statistical shape model-based technique for tissue deformation estimation

A novel finite element (FE) based technique is introduced, which can be applied for real-time or near real-time soft tissue deformation calculation, irrespective of the complexities arising from the tissue constitutive law or loading conditions. Unlike classical FE methods, which are computationally slow, this technique is very fast and yet highly accurate. The proposed technique is based on statistical analysis of pre-processed FE models on a class of organ shapes similar to the object shape of interest. We show that FE analysis results of any new shape in the class of objects can be obtained by a linear combination of main modes of the FE output parameter space. Several examples are presented for validation and finally an application of this method in real-time elastography is demonstrated.