Alex Veress, Ph.D.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
E-mail: averess@u.wa...


TITLE:

"Soft-Tissue Finite Element Modeling: Tissue Compression to Cardiac Modeling"


ABSTRACT:

Finite element analysis (FEA) has been used for decades to gain valuable
information on hard and soft tissue deformation within the human body.
FEA models have been used to provide accurate models of both passive
deformation such as evident in breast tissue undergoing mammography as
well as the deformations associated with active processes such active
contraction of the left ventricle of the heart.  Combining the information
made available through FEA with imaging allows one to greatly expand
the scope of FEA as well as allow for greater development of imaging
technologies.    For example, combining cardiac FEA models with the
4D NURBS-based Cardiac-Torso (NCAT) imaging phantom allows for
the creation of cardiac images that can truly be used as a “Gold Standard”
because the exact deformations of the heart are known.  This in turn can
be used to expand or refine image reconstruction algorithms since the
geometry and the deformations of the heart are known.  Furthermore,
FEA has the inherent flexibility to be to be used for image registration
such that the deformations predicted by the FEA models are directly
governed by clinical medical images such as PET, SPECT and MRI