Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
[
47
]. An example recently published is the PREDIBIRTH model software that uses
MRI image analysis to predict if a mother might face difficulties during the birth
process. The MRI images of the mother's pelvis and the fetus are integrated and
analysed in a 3D model providing different scenarios of the expected birth process.
These predictions or scenarios will help the clinician to prepare optimally for the
birth process and support decisions in critical situations [
48
].
5.2 Physiological Models
Physiological models study the parts and functional behavior of the human body
using physical and biological knowledge of the underlying processes. Physiological
models are based on metabolic information and integrate population data that have
clinical relevance [
49
]. Physiological models study the dynamic processes and the
functional behavior of the physiological state of a tissue, an organ, or even an
organism. Information about the structure and composition of the object of interest
is relevant for the physiological models, but also the nature and functioning of the
relevant elements, as well as growth processes. Knowledge of the physical
parameters of the system including forces and electrical charges and how they are
transmitted are of crucial importance for the models. Also thermal energy and its
influence on the system can be studied with physiological models. A prominent
example is the Virtual Liver Network, a scientific programme across Germany that
is financed by the Federal German Ministry of Education and Research. A prede-
cessor programme—HepatoSys—started in 2004 to quantitatively study the liver as
one of the major organs in the human body and elucidate the cellular processes
underlying detoxification, endocytosis, iron regulation, and regeneration in mam-
malian hepatocytes (
www.hepatosys.de
)
. The Virtual Liver Network (
www.
virtual-liver.de
)
followed this approach as a multidisciplinary research pro-
gramme aiming at the development of a whole-organ model of the human liver and
describing the physiological functions under normal and pathological conditions
[
49
,
50
].
The Virtual Physiological Human is a European scale initiative developing
patient-specific computer models for personalized and predictive health care.
Computational tools are the core that enable modeling and simulation of human
physiology in healthy and disease-related physiological processes (
www.vph-
noe.eu
). Projects under the VHP umbrella address diseases of the heart, brain, and
intestines, but also develop infrastructure for data generation and ICT, and work on
the enabling of data integration and modeling. An issue to further advance
physiological models is information about how the different parts interact, such as
cell-tissue interaction or interaction of different tissues in the human body. The
integration of molecular data into these models will allow comprehensive under-
standing of the mechanisms and the pathophysiology of diseases.
