Utero-Fetal Unit and Pregnant Woman Modeling Using a Computer Graphics Approach for Dosimetry Studies

Abstract

Abstract. Potential sanitary effects related to electromagnetic fields exposure raise public concerns, especially for fetuses during pregnancy. Human fetus exposure can only be assessed through simulated dosimetry studies, performed on anthropomorphic models of pregnant women. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to generate a set of detailed utero-fetal unit (UFU) 3D models during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy, based on segmented 3D ultrasound and MRI data. UFU models are built using recent geometry processing methods derived from mesh-based computer graphics techniques and embedded in a synthetic woman body. Nine pregnant woman models have been generated using this approach and validated by obstetricians, for anatomical accuracy and representativeness.

Automatic Segmentation of Antenatal 3-D Ultrasound Images

“…In this context, we exploited four 3DUS cases to generate detailed anatomical models used to investigate the influence of electromagnetic fields on the fetus during pregnancy (see [45] and [46] for details). Surfacic models of the uterus and its content were built and embedded within a synthetic woman model.…”

Hybrid 3D pregnant woman and fetus modeling from medical imaging for dosimetry studies

“…The obtained surfaces match the smoothness requirements for dosimetry computation, while keeping a good precision and accuracy with respect to the original data. In [19], we present a more sophisticated method based on computer graphics algorithms to generate smooth models.…”

Whole-body pregnant woman modeling by digital geometry processing with detailed uterofetal unit based on medical images

“…4) on the surface models, especially when MRI images with anisotropic resolution are considered. In this section, we describe a method for generating a high-quality triangle mesh from a presegmented volume of interest [25]. We adopt a generic approach by first extracting an unorganized set of points from the volume data, and then, generating a mesh by sampling a smooth surface, which approximates this point set.…”