No abstract

Finite element (FE) analysis is a valuable tool in musculoskeletal research. The demands associated with mesh development, however, often prove daunting. In an effort to facilitate anatomic FE model development we have developed an open source software toolkit (IA-FEMesh). IA-FEMesh employs a multiblock meshing scheme aimed at hexahedral mesh generation. An emphasis has been placed on making the tools interactive, in an effort to create a user friendly environment. The goal is to provide an efficient and reliable method for model development, visualization, and mesh quality evaluation. While these tools have been developed, initially, in the context of skeletal structures they can be applied to countless applications.

No abstract

This study showed that manual segmentation of high-contrast, coronal, reformatted, CT datasets can accurately represent the true surface geometry of bones. Additionally, smoothing techniques did not significantly alter the surface representations. This validation technique should be extended to other bones, image segmentation and spatial filtering techniques.

The ANN has proven to be a reliable and valid means of segmenting the phalanx bones from CT images. Employing automated methods such as the ANN for segmentation, eliminates the likelihood of rater drift and inter-rater variability. Automated methods also decrease the amount of time and manual effort required to extract the data of interest, thereby making the feasibility of patient-specific modeling a reality.