Modeling and characterization of biostructures using 3D imaging

Menglu Wu

Medical imaging modalities have experienced tremendous development within the last century. Imaging techniques such as computerized tomography using x-ray and magnetic resonance imaging have been well established providing three dimensional high resolution images of anatomical structures inside the human body. Computer based mathematical methods have played an essential role for these image reconstructions. Electroencephalography source localization and trabecular bone mechanical properties are two popular topics among those areas that utilize both medical imaging and modeling techniques to help the researchers understand the underling mechanisms of the problem. Electroencephalography (EEG) source localization of brain activity is of high diagnostic value. Noninvasive numerical procedures can be developed to help reconstruct the cortical brain activities from the low-spatial-resolution scalp EEG measurement. In this study, Tikhonov regularization methods are employed to tackle the solution difficulty associated with the ill-posed reconstruction problem. Three different techniques, namely the L-curve method, the generalized cross validation (GCV) and the discrepancy principle (DP), are implemented to help identify an optimum parameter for the numerical regularization. On the second topic, age related bone fracture is becoming a significant social and economic problem to our increasingly aging population. Understanding the hidden mechanisms of those calamitous fractures will help us to develop methods of preventing and treating these problems. As the apparent mechanical properties of bone depend on the degree and distribution of mineralization, the goal of the present study is to examine the influences of heterogeneous and homogeneous mineralization on biomechanical properties of trabecular bone. Heterogeneous and homogeneous finite element (FE) analyses are conducted for different trabecular bone samples to obtain predictions of elastic modulus. Our results show that the image-based micro-FE is an effective method for bone characterization, and can be further applied to examine microarchitecture-related bone problems associated with aging, disease, and treatment.

Modeling and characterization of biostructures using 3D imaging

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