Anatomical modelling of the musculoskeletal system from MRI

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach for multi-organ (musculoskeletal system) automatic registration and segmentation from clinical MRI datasets, based on discrete deformable models (simplex meshes). We reduce the computational complexity using multi-resolution forces, multi-resolution hierarchical collision handling and large simulation time steps (implicit integration scheme), allowing real-time user control and cost-efficient segmentation. Radial forces and topological constraints (attachments) are applied to regularize the segmentation process. Based on a medial axis constrained approximation, we efficiently characterize shapes and deformations. We validate our methods for the hip joint and the thigh (20 muscles, 4 bones) on 4 datasets: average error=1.5mm, computation time=15min. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.