Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
biomechanics such material properties and cartilages layers. Numerical models are
widely used in numerous domains and were thus adopted for medical applications.
Moreover, the evolution of computing power, the accessibility of high resolution
data images and segmentation techniques reconstructing accurate 3D subject-specific
models have contributed to the growing use of computational models. These models
were successfully used in different applications, such as the analysis of symptomatic
and asymptomatic hips during daily activities [
16
,
17
,
26
]. Nevertheless, the models
used in these studies are not fully subject-specific. In fact, studies exploit generic [
17
]
or subject-specific anatomical models [
16
,
26
] but combine them with generic kine-
matical and physical data resulting from other experimental studies [
3
]. Moreover,
the studied movements are often artificial (e.g., variation of anatomical angles) or
limited to routine activities (e.g., walking, climbing stairs) which are characterized
by lowmotion amplitude [
17
,
22
]. Finally, the results of these computational models
are often presented without clinical validation [
16
,
27
].
Therefore, there is a lack of studies combining subject-models (anatomical, kine-
matical and physical data) to analyze the hip joint during excessive movements.
Nevertheless, the biomechanical modeling of a subject-specific hip joint is a difficult
task and requires an adapted pipeline.
To address this issue, this paper presents a functional approach based on subject-
specific models to simulate the mechanical behavior of the hip joint under excessive
movement. The analysis of the deformation location and the assessment of the stress
on the articular layers (cartilage and labrum) during such movements will be helpful
to determine whether such activities can be a factor of hip joint degeneration.
10.2 Functional Approach
The proposed functional approach is based on non invasive acquisition modalities.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is used for anatomical modeling, a motion
capture system(Mocap) for kinematical modeling and simulationmodels for physical
modeling. Techniques which have their origin in computer graphics are used to
reconstruct subject anatomical, kinematical and physical models. These models are
used to set up the simulation model to achieve accurate physically-based simulation
of the hip joint.
10.2.1 Anatomical Modeling
Given the numerous differences that exist between individuals, the use of subject-
specific anatomical models is of paramount importance to clinical diagnosis. To
reconstruct the subject models, the first step is to select medical modalities that
allow the best imaging of the structures to model. Compared to other modalities (e.g.,
Computed Tomography (CT)), MRI is a good choice for musculoskeletal imaging,
