Evaluation of damage to the lumbar spine vertebrae L5 by finite element analysis

Abstract

Bone metastasis to the spine, pelvis or hip in patients with prostate cancer is a pathology that occurs in approximately 80% of cases. Metastases in the spine can cause pain, instability and neurological injuries. Therefore, it is relevant to evaluate when critical conditions have been reached and the structural integrity of the bone is compromised. Numerical methods based on patient data, obtained through post-processing of medical images, provide a tool to model the complexity of the biological tissue material. Computed axial tomography (CT) together with segmentation tools allows the reconstruction of 3D bone models that include mechanical properties, and that represents the anisotropic condition of bone structures. In this work, we present the L5 lumbar vertebra model of a patient affected by metastases and evaluate biomarkers to indicate the level of damage, compared with the reference case of healthy bone in an initial stage.

Characterization of Pig Vertebrae under Axial Compression Integrating Radiomic Techniques and Finite Element Analysis

“…Information from available studies [39] was used material model in the software Bonemat [38]. In Bonemat, both the mesh m DICOM file containing the Hounsfield scale (HU) are used for the purpos equations and assigning the elastic modulus value element-wise in th apparent density ρ [kg/m 3 ] was adjusted to the specific range (1250-14 present in the bone tissues [23] for densities in the range (725-690) kg/m 3 , a of 0.0226 and 696.66 were obtained in (2) for a linear fitting: Material properties, such as density and elastic modulus, were assigned considering a functionally graded material model using the Hounsfield scale. This approach is based on the fact that the bone is an organic material that exhibits changes in the elastic modulus, from areas characterized by bone with high elastic modulus to those with lower values.…”

“…In Bonemat, both the mesh model and the DICOM file containing the Hounsfield scale (HU) are used for the purpose of fitting the equations and assigning the elastic modulus value element-wise in the mesh. The apparent density ρ[kg/m 3 ] was adjusted to the specific range (1250-147) of the HU present in the bone tissues [23] for densities in the range (725-690) kg/m 3 , and coefficients of 0.0226 and 696.66 were obtained in (2) for a linear fitting:…”

“…The development of new models calibrated with real data, capable of accurately capturing the complex mechanical behavior of bone tissue, holds significant promise for addressing various issues related to bone health and diseases. The finite element method (FEM) is a numerical technique that has been used to create three-dimensional (3D) models that represent the physical behavior of porous materials such as bone tissues [23], rocks [24], cellular structures [25], and more. These models include appropriate boundary conditions and material models that account for the porosity, elasticity, plasticity, and fracture of the porous materials for accurate numerical representations [26].…”

Structural health monitoringusing the Firefly optimization algorithm and finite elements

“…Damage detection in structures through modal analysis is one of the most used methods including dynamic data of structures. This is based on the fact that deterioration of the condition of a structure or element is linked to the loss of stiffness [1], [8], affecting the dynamic properties of the system. The variation presented in modal parameters is an indicator of the magnitude and localization of damage [9]- [11].…”