An atlas-based approach for prediction and analysis of the brain deformation

Abstract

As the interest in the computer-aided, quantitative analysis of medical image data is growing, the need for accurate modeling techniques of brain is also increasing. Today finite element method (FEM) provides a powerful tool for investigating the biomechanics of brain deformation particularly when used in conjunction with experimental studies. In this paper a biomechanical approach has been proposed based on a finite element model of the brain after extracting feature points from Cerefy Brain Atlas [1, 2, 3, 4]. It takes into account the anatomical cerebral structures to predict brain deformation. A volumetric three-dimensional biomechanical simulation of brain deformation was aimed to demonstrate by implementing tetrahedral mesh in a 3D CAD system and then assigning different biomechanical properties and parameters to the different structures for composing the model.