ImageParser: a tool for finite element generation from three-dimensional medical images

A software package, ImageParser, is developed to generate an FEM mesh from 3-D tomographic medical images. This software uses a semi-automatic method to detect ROIs from the context of image including neighboring tissues and organs, completes segmentation of different tissues, and meshes the organ into elements.The ImageParser is shown to build up an FEM model for simulating the mechanical responses of the breast based on 3-D CT images. The breast is compressed by two plate paddles under an overall displacement as large as 20% of the initial distance between the paddles. The strain and tangential Young's modulus distributions are specified for the biomechanical analysis of breast tissues.The ImageParser can successfully exact the geometry of ROIs from a complex medical image and generate the FEM mesh with customer-defined segmentation information.Diagnostic imaging devices such as CT, MRI and PET scanners are able to produce three-dimensional (3-D) descriptions of various features such as tissues and organs. In a computer, these images are some data to describe the intensity at each spatial point of a volume. The interpretation of the dataset requires special training and depends on the experience. Researchers have introduced a variety of algorithms to visualize 3-D medical images, and to extract the geometric information of objects from volumetric image data [1-3].In recent years, the finite element method (FEM) has widely been used to simulate the mechanical deformation of tissues and organs during examinations or interventions [4-6]. To build up an FEM mesh from a medical image, the contour information of segmented regions of interest (ROIs) need to be first extracted from a volume of data [7,8]. Then, the volume is meshed into nodes and elements, and material properties are endowed to each element in accordance with the segmentation information [9]. By further applying the boundary conditions and mechanical loadings on the corresponding nodes or elements, commer