Modeling Real-Time 3-D Lung Deformations for Medical Visualization

• Published in: IEEE transactions on information technology in biomedicine Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 257 - 270
• Main Authors: Santhanam, A.P., Imielinska, C., Davenport, P., Kupelian, P., Rolland, J.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.03.2008
• Subjects: Biomedical imaging; Biomedical optical imaging; Computation; Computational modeling; Computed tomography; Computer Simulation; Computer Systems; Data visualization; Deformable models; Deformation; Elasticity; Green's function; Human; Humans; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods; Lung - diagnostic imaging; Lung - physiology; Lungs; Mathematical models; Models, Biological; Operators; organ morphology; Orientation; Photonics; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Shape; Organ Morphology; Green's Function; Lung Physiology
• ISSN: 1089-7771
• DOI: 10.1109/TITB.2007.899489

In this paper, we propose a physics-based and physiology-based approach for modeling real-time deformations of 3-D high-resolution polygonal lung models obtained from high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images of normal human subjects. The physics-based deformation operator is nonsymmetric, which accounts for the heterogeneous elastic properties of the lung tissue and spatial-dynamic flow properties of the air. An iterative approach is used to estimate the deformation with the deformation operator initialized based on the regional alveolar expandability, a key physiology-based parameter. The force applied on each surface node is based on the airflow pattern inside the lungs, which is known to be based on the orientation of the human subject. The validation of lung dynamics is done by resimulating the lung deformation and comparing it with HRCT data and computing force applied on each node derived from a 4-D HRCT dataset of a normal human subject using the proposed deformation operator and verifying its gradient with the orientation.