1. Toward Automating Patient-Specific Finite Element Model Development
Nicole M. Grosland, Vincent A. Magnotta,
Kiran H. Shivanna, Steve Pieper, Curt Lisle
Analysis from CT scans to generation of meshes in a single software package
Customized for hip joint and expanding to other structures of interest. Generalizing code for diverse set of problems.

2. Patient Specific Models
In order to bring FE to the “bedside” for guiding surgical procedures the technique must be unencumbered from the image segmentation and mesh generation process
Overcome the limitations associated with individualized, or patient-specific models
In order to bring FE to the “bedside” for guiding surgical procedures the technique must be unencumbered from the image segmentation and mesh generation process. Overcome the limitations associated with individualized, or patient-specific models - -namely the extensive manual labor.

3. Progress
June – Flood closes campus for two weeks with alternate working arrangements for an additional month
The long-term goal of this work is to make patient-specific modeling a reality via automated anatomic model development techniques.
To date, two methods have contributed to this goal:
The projection method and
A novel tracing technique.
Prior to jumping into a description of these techniques I wanted to mention briefly the structure under consideration.

4. Progress
August – Completed meshing workflow and released a stand-alone application, IA-FEMesh, using the NA-MIC toolkit
October – Visit by Curt Lisle to work on integration of meshing workflow into Slicer3
December – Meshing workflow integrated into Slicer3 trunk
January – Meshing tutorial presented at AHM

5. Meshing Module
IA-FEMesh Standalone application
Slicer3 Integration

6. Meshing Workflow

7. Building Block Editing

8. Mirror and Merging Blocks

9. Mesh Quality Evaluation
Summary Report

10. Node/Element Set Selection

11. Load / BC Verification

12. Additional Features Control over mesh density Mesh improvement
Assignment of loads and boundary conditions
Assignment of material properties
Constant
Image intensity
Ability to create a uniform cartilage layer
Export to ABAQUS

13. Mesh Comparisons

14. Accuracy & Validity Studies

15. Phalanx Bones and PIP Implant

16. Carpal Bones and UTW2

17. Mechanical Joint

18. Brain Mesh

19. Future Work Mapped mesh extension Refinement of Slicer3 Integration
Mapping of building block structure to complicated geometries
Development of Slicer3 execution model
Evaluate for speed improvements
Refinement of Slicer3 Integration
Allow sharing of data between Slicer3 and meshing module
Improved integration of custom actors
Complete scene snapshot / restore
Module specific application settings
Add GUI tests using Squish
Further refinement of Slicer3 EM Segmentation tools for use with CT data
Test meshing module in the course “Applied Biomedical FE Modeling” offered at the University of Iowa

20. Publications
DeVries NA, Gassman EE, Kallemeyn NA, Shivanna KH, Magnotta VA, Grosland NM., Validation of phalanx bone three-dimensional surface segmentation from computed tomography images using laser scanning, Skeletal Radiol Jan;37(1):35-42.
Gassman EE, Powell SM, Kallemeyn NA, Devries NA, Shivanna KH, Magnotta VA, Ramme AJ, Adams BD, Grosland NM., Automated bony region identification using artificial neural networks: reliability and validation measurements. Skeletal Radiol Apr;37(4):313-9.
Grosland NM, Bafna R, Magnotta VA., Automated hexahedral meshing of anatomic structures using deformable registration. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin Aug 7:1. [Epub ahead of print]
Ramme AJ, Devries N, Kallemyn NA, Magnotta VA, Grosland NM., Semi-automated Phalanx Bone Segmentation Using the Expectation Maximization Algorithm. J Digit Imaging Sep 3. [Epub ahead of print]
Magnotta V, Li W, Grosland N. Comparison of Displacement-Based and Force-Based Mapped Meshing. Workshop on Computational Biomechanics for Medicine at MICCAI Insight Journal, , 2008.
Grosland NM, Shivanna KH, Magnotta VA, Kallemeyn NA, DeVries NA, Tadepalli SC, Lisle C., IA-FEMesh: An open-source, interactive, multiblock approach to musculoskeletal finite element model development, Comput Methods Programs Biomed (in press).

21. Acknowledgements Grant funding NIH/NIBIB R21 (EB001501) R01 (EB005973)
Nicole Kallemeyn, Nicole DeVries, Esther Gassman,
Ritesh Bafna, Srinivas Tadepalli, Austin Ramme, Wen Li, Dr. Brian Adams