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Purpose: Morphological data pertaining to the pelvis and lower extremity muscles are increasingly being used in biomechanical modeling to compare healthy and pathological conditions. Very few data sets exist that encompass all of the muscles of the lower limb, allowing for comparisons between regions. The aims of this study were to (a) provide physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) data for the pelvic, thigh, and leg muscles in young, healthy participants, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and (b) to compare these data with summarized PCSAs obtained from the literature.
Materials and Methods: Six young and healthy volunteers participated and were scanned using 3 T MRI. PCSAs were calculated from volumetric segmentations obtained bilaterally of 28 muscles/muscle groups of the pelvis, thigh, and leg. These data were compared to published, summarized PCSA data derived from cadaveric, computed tomography, MRI and ultrasound studies.
Results: The PCSA of the pelvis, thigh, and leg muscles tended to be 20–130% larger in males than in females, except for the gemelli which were 34% smaller in males, and semitendinosus and triceps surae which did not differ (<20% different). The dominant and the non-dominant sides showed similar and minutely different PCSA with less than 18% difference between sides. Comparison to other studies revealed wide ranges within, and large differences between, the cadaveric and imaging PCSA data. Comparison of the PCSA of this study and published literature revealed major differences in the iliopsoas, gluteus minimus, tensor fasciae latae, gemelli, obturator internus, biceps femoris, quadriceps femoris, and the deep leg flexor muscles.
Conclusions: These volume-derived PCSAs of the pelvic and lower limb muscles alongside the data synthesised from the literature may serve as a basis for comparative and biomechanical studies of the living and healthy young, and enable calculation of muscle forces. Comparison of the literature revealed large variations in PCSA from each of the different investigative modalities, hampering omparability between studies. Sample size, age, post-mortem changes of muscle tone, chemical fixation of cadaveric tissues, and the underlying physics of the imaging techniques may potentially influence PCSA calculations.
Purpose: A fully automated surgical tool detection framework is proposed for endoscopic video streams. State-of-the-art surgical tool detection methods rely on supervised one-vs-all or multi-class classification techniques, completely ignoring the co-occurrence relationship of the tools and the associated class imbalance.
Methods: In this paper, we formulate tool detection as a multi-label classification task where tool co-occurrences are treated as separate classes. In addition, imbalance on tool co-occurrences is analyzed and stratification techniques are employed to address the imbalance during Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) training. Moreover, temporal smoothing is introduced as an online post-processing step to enhance run time prediction.
Results: Quantitative analysis is performed on the M2CAI16 tool detection dataset to highlight the importance of stratification, temporal smoothing and the overall framework for tool detection.
Conclusion: The analysis on tool imbalance, backed by the empirical results indicates the need and superiority of the proposed framework over state-of-the-art techniques.
Temperature based death time estimation is based either on simple phenomenological models of corpse cooling or on detailed physical heat transfer models. The latter are much more complex, but allow a higher accuracy of death time estimation as in principle all relevant cooling mechanisms can be taken into account. Here, a complete work flow for finite element based cooling simulation models is presented.
The following steps are demonstrated on CT-phantoms:
• CT-scan
• Segmentation of the CT images for thermodynamically relevant features of individual
geometries
• Conversion of the segmentation result into a Finite Element (FE) simulation model
• Computation of the model cooling curve
• Calculation of the cooling time
For the first time in FE-based cooling time estimation the steps from the CT image over segmentation to FE model generation are semi-automatically performed. The cooling time calculation results are compared to cooling measurements performed on the phantoms under controlled conditions. In this context, the method is validated using different CTphantoms. Some of the CT phantoms thermodynamic material parameters had to be experimentally determined via independent experiments. Moreover the impact of geometry and material parameter uncertainties on the estimated cooling time is investigated by a sensitivity analysis.
Purpose: Despite the success of total knee arthroplasty there continues to be a significant proportion of patients who are dissatisfied. One explanation may be a shape mismatch between pre and post-operative distal femurs. The purpose of this study was to investigate a method to match a statistical shape model (SSM) to intra-operatively acquired point cloud data from a surgical navigation system, and to validate it against the pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the same patients.
Methods: A total of 10 patients who underwent navigated total knee arthroplasty also had an MRI scan less than 2 months pre-operatively. The standard surgical protocol was followed which included partial digitization of the distal femur. Two different methods were employed to fit the SSM to the digitized point cloud data, based on (1) Iterative Closest Points (ICP) and (2) Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM). The available MRI data were manually segmented and the reconstructed three-dimensional surfaces used as ground truth against which the statistical shape model fit was compared.
Results: For both approaches, the difference between the statistical shape model-generated femur and the surface generated from MRI segmentation averaged less than 1.7 mm, with maximum errors occurring in less clinically important areas.
Conclusion: The results demonstrated good correspondence with the distal femoral morphology even in cases of sparse data sets. Application of this technique will allow for measurement of mismatch between pre and post-operative femurs retrospectively on any case done using the surgical navigation system and could be integrated into the surgical navigation unit to provide real-time feedback.
Face to Face-Interface
(2017)
The Ammonoidea is a group of extinct cephalopods ideal to study evolution through deep time. The evolution of the planispiral shell and complexly folded septa in ammonoids has been thought to have increased the functional surface area of the chambers permitting enhanced metabolic functions such as: chamber emptying, rate of mineralization and increased growth rates throughout ontogeny. Using nano-computed tomography and synchrotron radiation based micro-computed tomography, we present the first study of ontogenetic changes in surface area to volume ratios in the phragmocone chambers of several phylogenetically distant ammonoids and extant cephalopods. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, ammonoids do not possess a persistently high relative chamber surface area. Instead, the functional surface area of the chambers is higher in earliest ontogeny when compared to Spirula spirula. The higher the functional surface area the quicker the potential emptying rate of the chamber; quicker chamber emptying rates would theoretically permit faster growth. This is supported by the persistently higher siphuncular surface area to chamber volume ratio we collected for the ammonite Amauroceras sp. compared to either S. spirula or nautilids. We demonstrate that the curvature of the surface of the chamber increases with greater septal complexity increasing the potential refilling rates. We further show a unique relationship between ammonoid chamber shape and size that does not exist in S. spirula or nautilids. This view of chamber function also has implications for the evolution of the internal shell of coleoids, relating this event to the decoupling of soft-body growth and shell growth.
Background: Fossil ticks are extremely rare, whereby Ixodes succineus Weidner, 1964 from Eocene (ca. 44-49 Ma) Baltic amber is one of the oldest examples of a living hard tick genus (Ixodida: Ixodidae). Previous work suggested it was most closely related to the modern and widespread European sheep tick Ixodes ricinus (Linneaus, 1758).
Results: Restudy using phase contrast synchrotron x-ray tomography yielded images of exceptional quality. These confirm the fossil's referral to Ixodes Latreille, 1795, but the characters resolved here suggest instead affinities with the Asian subgenus Partipalpiger Hoogstraal et al., 1973 and its single living (and medically significant) species Ixodes ovatus Neumann, 1899. We redescribe the amber fossil here as Ixodes (Partipalpiger) succineus.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that Ixodes ricinus is unlikely to be directly derived from Weidner's amber species, but instead reveals that the Partipalpiger lineage was originally more widely distributed across the northern hemisphere. The closeness of Ixodes (P.) succineus to a living vector of a wide range of pathogens offers the potential to correlate its spatial and temporal position (northern Europe, nearly 50 million years ago) with the estimated origination dates of various tick-borne diseases.
The reconstruction of an object's shape or surface from a set of 3D points is a common topic in materials and life sciences, computationally handled in computer graphics. Such points usually stem from optical or tactile 3D coordinate measuring equipment. Surface reconstruction also appears in medical image analysis, e.g. in anatomy reconstruction from tomographic measurements or the alignment of intra-operative navigation and preoperative planning data. In contrast to mere 3D point clouds, medical imaging yields contextual information on the 3D point data that can be used to adopt prior information on the shape that is to be reconstructed from the measurements. In this work we propose to use a statistical shape model (SSM) as a prior for surface reconstruction. The prior knowledge is represented by a point distribution model (PDM) that is associated with a surface mesh. Using the shape distribution that is modelled by the PDM, we reformulate the problem of surface reconstruction from a probabilistic perspective based on a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). In order to do so, the given measurements are interpreted as samples of the GMM. By using mixture components with anisotropic covariances that are oriented according to the surface normals at the PDM points, a surface-based tting is accomplished. By estimating the parameters of the GMM in a maximum a posteriori manner, the reconstruction of the surface from the given measurements is achieved. Extensive experiments suggest that our proposed approach leads to superior surface reconstructions compared to Iterative Closest Point (ICP) methods.
Comparative cephalopod shell strength and the role of septum morphology on stress distribution
(2016)
The evolution of complexly folded septa in ammonoids has long been a controversial topic. Explanations of the function of these folded septa can be divided into physiological and mechanical hypotheses with the mechanical functions tending to find widespread support. The complexity of the cephalopod shell has made it difficult to directly test the mechanical properties of these structures without oversimplification of the septal morphology or extraction of a small sub-domain. However, the power of modern finite element analysis now permits direct testing of mechanical hypothesis on complete, empirical models of the shells taken from computed tomographic data. Here we compare, for the first time using empirical models, the capability of the shells of extant Nautilus pompilius, Spirula spirula, and the extinct ammonite Cadoceras sp. to withstand hydrostatic pressure and point loads. Results show hydrostatic pressure imparts highest stress on the final septum with the rest of the shell showing minimal compression. S. spirula shows the lowest stress under hydrostatic pressure while N. pompilius shows the highest stress. Cadoceras sp. shows the development of high stress along the attachment of the septal saddles with the shell wall. Stress due to point loads decreases when the point force is directed along the suture as opposed to the unsupported chamber wall. Cadoceras sp. shows the greatest decrease in stress between the point loads compared to all other models. Greater amplitude of septal flutes corresponds with greater stress due to hydrostatic pressure; however, greater amplitude decreases the stress magnitude of point loads directed along the suture. In our models, sutural complexity does not predict greater resistance to hydrostatic pressure but it does seem to increase resistance to point loads, such as would be from predators. This result permits discussion of palaeoecological reconstructions on the basis of septal morphology. We further suggest that the ratio used to characterize septal morphology in the septal strength index and in calculations of tensile strength of nacre are likely insufficient. A better understanding of the material properties of cephalopod nacre may allow the estimation of maximum depth limits of shelled cephalopods through finite element analysis.
Deformable model-based approaches to 3D image segmentation have been shown to be highly successful. Such methodology requires an appearance model that drives the deformation of a geometric model to the image data. Appearance models are usually either created heuristically or through supervised learning. Heuristic methods have been shown to work effectively in many applications but are hard to transfer from one application (imaging modality/anatomical structure) to another. On the contrary, supervised learning approaches can learn patterns from a collection of annotated training data. In this work, we show that the supervised joint dictionary learning technique is capable of overcoming the traditional drawbacks of the heuristic approaches. Our evaluation based on two different applications (liver/CT and knee/MR) reveals that our approach generates appearance models, which can be used effectively and efficiently in a deformable model-based segmentation framework.
Statistical shape models (SSM) describe the shape variability contained in a given population. They are able to describe large populations of complex shapes with few degrees of freedom. This makes them a useful tool for a variety of tasks that arise in computer-aided madicine. In this chapter we are going to explain the basic methodology of SSMs and present a variety of examples, where SSMs have been successfully applied.
We propose a novel Riemannian framework for statistical analysis of shapes that is able to account for the nonlinearity in shape variation. By adopting a physical perspective, we introduce a differential representation that puts the local geometric variability into focus. We model these differential coordinates as elements of a Lie group thereby endowing our shape space with a non-Euclidian structure. A key advantage of our framework is that statistics in a manifold shape space become numerically tractable improving performance by several orders of magnitude over state-of-the-art. We show that our Riemannian model is well suited for the identification of intra-population variability as well as inter-population differences. In particular, we demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model in experiments on specificity and generalization ability. We further derive a statistical shape descriptor that outperforms the standard Euclidian approach in terms of shape-based classification of morphological disorders.
We present a novel framework for fully automated and highly accurate determination of facial landmarks and dense correspondence, e.g. a topologically identical mesh of arbitrary resolution, across the entire surface of 3D face models. For robustness and reliability of the proposed approach, we are combining 2D landmark detectors and 3D statistical shape priors with a variational matching method. Instead of matching faces in the spatial domain only, we employ image registration to align the 2D parametrization of the facial surface to a planar template we call the Unified Facial Parameter Domain (ufpd). This allows us to simultaneously match salient photometric and geometric facial features using robust image similarity measures while reasonably constraining geometric distortion in regions with less significant features. We demonstrate the accuracy of the dense correspondence established by our framework on the BU3DFE database with 2500 facial surfaces and show, that our framework outperforms current state-of-the-art methods with respect to the fully automated location of facial landmarks.
This article reflects the research of the last two decades in computational planning for cranio-maxillofacial surgery. Model-guided and computer-assisted surgery planning has tremendously developed due to ever increasing computational capabilities. Simulators for education, planning, and training of surgery are often compared with flight simulators, where maneuvers are also trained to reduce a possible risk of failure. Meanwhile, digital patient models can be derived from medical image data with astonishing accuracy and thus can serve for model surgery to derive a surgical template model that represents the envisaged result. Computerized surgical planning approaches, however, are often still explorative, meaning that a surgeon tries to find a therapeutic concept based on his or her expertise using computational tools that are mimicking real procedures. Future perspectives of an improved computerized planning may be that surgical objectives will be generated algorithmically by employing mathematical modeling, simulation, and optimization techniques. Planning systems thus act as intelligent decision support systems. However, surgeons can still use the existing tools to vary the proposed approach, but they mainly focus on how to transfer objectives into reality. Such a development may result in a paradigm shift for future surgery planning.
Enhancements in tomographic imaging techniques facilitate non-destructive methods for visualizing fossil structures. However, to penetrate dense materials such as sediments or pyrites, image acquisition is typically performed with high beam energy and very sensitive image intensifiers, leading to artifacts and noise in the acquired data. The analysis of delicate fossil structures requires the images to be captured in maximum resolution, resulting in large data sets of several giga bytes (GB) in size. Since the structural information of interest is often almost in the same spatial range as artifacts and noise, image processing and segmentation algorithms have to cope with a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
Within this report we present a study on the performance of a collection of denoising algorithms applied to a very noisy fossil dataset. The study shows that a non-local means (NLM) filter, in case it is properly configured, is able to remove a considerable amount of noise while preserving most of the structural information of interest. Based on the results of this study, we developed a software tool within ZIBAmira that denoises large tomographic datasets using an adaptive, GPU-accelerated NLM filter. With the help of our implementation a user can interactively configure the filter's parameters and thus its effectiveness with respect to the data of interest, while the filtering response is instantly visualized for a preselected region of interest (ROI). Our implementation efficiently denoises even large fossil datasets in a reasonable amount of time.
The Facial Profile
(2015)
Facial appearance in our societies is often associated with notions of attractiveness, juvenileness, beauty, success, and so forth. Hence, the role of facial plastic surgery is highly interrelated to a patient's desire to feature many of these positively connoted attributes, which of course, are subject of different cultural perceptions or social trends. To judge about somebody's facial appearance, appropriate quantitative measures as well as methods to obtain and compare individual facial features are required.
This special issue on facial profile is intended to provide an overview on how facial characteristics are surgically managed in an interdisciplinary way based on experience, instrumentation, and modern technology to obtain an aesthetic facial appearance with harmonious facial proportions.
The facial profile will be discussed within the context of facial aesthetics. Latest concepts for capturing facial morphology in high speed and impressive detail are presented for quantitative analysis of even subtle changes, aging effects, or facial expressions. In addition, the perception of facial profiles is evaluated based on eye tracking technology.
Towards Robust Measurement Of Pelvic Parameters From AP Radiographs Using Articulated 3D Models
(2015)
Patient-specific parameters such as the orientation of the acetabulum or pelvic tilt are useful for custom planning for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and for evaluating the outcome of surgical interventions. The gold standard in obtaining pelvic parameters is from three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) imaging. However, this adds time and cost, exposes the patient to a substantial radiation dose, and does not allow for imaging under load (e.g. while the patient is standing). If pelvic parameters could be reliably derived from the standard anteroposterior (AP) radiograph, preoperative planning would be more widespread, and research analyses could be applied to retrospective data, after a postoperative issue is discovered.
The goal of this work is to enable robust measurement of two surgical parameters of interest: the tilt of the anterior pelvic plane (APP) and the orientation of the natural acetabulum. We present a computer-aided reconstruction method to determine the APP and natural acetabular orientation from a single, preoperative X-ray. It can easily be extended to obtain other important preoperative and postoperative parameters solely based on a single AP radiograph.
Towards Robust Measurement of Pelvic Parameters from AP Radiographs using Articulated 3D Models
(2015)
Patient-specific parameters such as the orientation of the acetabulum or pelvic tilt are useful for custom planning for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and for evaluating the outcome of surgical interventions. The gold standard in obtaining pelvic parameters is from three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) imaging. However, this adds time and cost, exposes the patient to a substantial radiation dose, and does not allow for imaging under load (e.g. while the patient is standing). If pelvic parameters could be reliably derived from the standard anteroposterior (AP) radiograph, preoperative planning would be more widespread, and research analyses could be applied to retrospective data, after a postoperative issue is discovered. The goal of this work is to enable robust measurement of two surgical parameters of interest: the tilt of the anterior pelvic plane (APP) and the orientation of the natural acetabulum. We present a computer-aided reconstruction method to determine the APP and natural acetabular orientation from a single, preoperative X-ray. It can easily be extended to obtain other important preoperative and postoperative parameters solely based on a single AP radiograph.
The chambered shell of modern cephalopods functions as a buoyancy apparatus, allowing the animal to enter the water column without expending a large amount of energy to overcome its own weight. Indeed, the chambered shell is largely considered a key adaptation that allowed the earliest cephalopods to leave the ocean floor and enter the water column. It has been argued by some, however, that the iconic chambered shell of Paleozoic and Mesozoic ammonoids did not provide a sufficiently buoyant force to compensate for the weight of the entire animal, thus restricting ammonoids to a largely benthic lifestyle reminiscent of some octopods. Here we develop a technique using high-resolution computed tomography to quantify the buoyant properties of chambered shells without reducing the shell to ideal spirals or eliminating inherent biological variability by using mathematical models that characterize past work in this area. This technique has been tested on Nautilus pompilius and is now extended to the extant deep-sea squid Spirula spirula and the Jurassic ammonite Cadoceras sp. hatchling. Cadoceras is found to have possessed near-neutral to positive buoyancy if hatched when the shell possessed between three and five chambers. However, we show that the animal could also overcome degrees of negative buoyancy through swimming, similar to the paralarvae of modern squids. These calculations challenge past inferences of benthic life habits based solely on calculations of negative buoyancy. The calculated buoyancy of Cadoceras supports the possibility of planktonic dispersal of ammonite hatchlings. This information is essential to understanding ammonoid ecology as well as biotic interactions and has implications for the interpretation of geochemical data gained from the isotopic analysis of the shell.
Validation of Three Dimensional Models of the Distal Femur Created from Surgical Navigation Data
(2015)
We present a novel method to derive the surface distance of an osteosynthesis plate w.r.t. the patientspecific surface of the distal femur based on 2D Xray images. Our goal is to study from clinical data, how the platetobone distance affects bone healing. The patientspecific 3D shape of the femur is, however, seldom recorded for cases of femoral osteosynthesis since this typically requires Computed Tomography (CT), which comes at high cost and radiation dose. Our method instead utilizes two postoperative Xray images to derive the femoral shape and thus can be applied on radiographs that are taken in clinical routine for followup. First, the implant geometry is used as a calibration object to relate the implant and the individual Xray images spatially in a virtual Xray setup. In a second step, the patientspecific femoral shape and pose are reconstructed in the virtual setup by fitting a deformable statistical shape and intensity model (SSIM) to the images. The relative positioning between femur and implant is then assessed in terms of displacement between the reconstructed 3D shape of the femur and the plate. A preliminary evaluation based on 4 cadaver datasets shows that the method derives the platetobone distance with a mean absolute error of less than 1mm and a maximum error of 4.7 mm compared to ground truth from CT. We believe that the approach presented in this paper constitutes a meaningful tool to elucidate the effect of implant positioning on fracture healing.
We present a novel method to derive the surface distance of an osteosynthesis plate w.r.t. the patient-specific surface of the distal femur based on postoperative 2D radiographs. In a first step, the implant geometry is used as a calibration object to relate the implant and the individual X-ray images spatially in a virtual X-ray setup. Second, the patient-specific femoral shape and pose are reconstructed by fitting a deformable statistical shape and intensity model (SSIM) to the X-rays. The relative positioning between femur and implant is then assessed in terms of the displacement between the reconstructed 3D shape of the femur and the plate. We believe that the approach presented in this paper constitutes a meaningful tool to elucidate the effect of implant positioning on fracture healing and, ultimately, to derive load recommendations after surgery.
We present a novel method to derive the surface distance of an osteosynthesis plate w.r.t. the patientspecific surface of the distal femur based on 2D Xray images. Our goal is to study from clinical data, how the platetobone distance affects bone healing. The patientspecific 3D shape of the femur is, however, seldom recorded for cases of femoral osteosynthesis since this typically requires Computed Tomography (CT), which comes at high cost and radiation dose. Our method instead utilizes two postoperative Xray images to derive the femoral shape and thus can be applied on radiographs that are taken in clinical routine for followup. First, the implant geometry is used as a calibration object to relate the implant and the individual Xray images spatially in a virtual Xray setup. In a second step, the patientspecific femoral shape and pose are reconstructed in the virtual setup by fitting a deformable statistical shape and intensity model (SSIM) to the images. The relative positioning between femur and implant is then assessed in terms of displacement between the reconstructed 3D shape of the femur and the plate. A preliminary evaluation based on 4 cadaver datasets shows that the method derives the platetobone distance with a mean absolute error of less than 1mm and a maximum error of 4.7 mm compared to ground truth from CT. We believe that the approach presented in this paper constitutes a meaningful tool to elucidate the effect of implant positioning on fracture healing.
We present a novel method to derive the surface distance of an osteosynthesis plate w.r.t. the patient-specific surface of the distal femur based on postoperative 2D radiographs. In a first step, the implant geometry is used as a calibration object to relate the implant and the individual X-ray images spatially in a virtual X-ray setup. Second, the patient- specific femoral shape and pose are reconstructed by fitting a deformable statistical shape and intensity model (SSIM) to the X-rays. The relative positioning between femur and implant is then assessed in terms of the displacement between the reconstructed 3D shape of the femur and the plate. We believe that the approach presented in this paper constitutes a meaningful tool to elucidate the effect of implant positioning on fracture healing and, ultimately, to derive load recommendations after surgery.
It has been recently suggested that mechanical loads applied at frequencies close to the natural frequencies of bone could enhance bone apposition due to the resonance phenomenon. Other applications of bone modal analysis are also suggested. For the above-mentioned applications, it is important to understand how patient-specific bone shape and density distribution influence the natural frequencies of bones. We used finite element models to study the effects of bone shape and density distribution on the natural frequencies of the femur in free boundary conditions. A statistical shape and appearance model that describes shape and density distribution independently was created, based on a training set of 27 femora. The natural frequencies were then calculated for different shape modes varied around the mean shape while keeping the mean density distribution, for different appearance modes around the mean density distribution while keeping the mean bone shape, and for the 27 training femora. Single shape or appearance modes could cause up to 15% variations in the natural frequencies with certain modes having the greatest impact. For the actual femora, shape and
density distribution changed the natural frequencies by up to 38%. First appearance mode that describes the general cortical bone thickness and trabecular bone density had one of the strongest impacts. The first appearance mode could therefore provide a sensitive measure of general bone health and disease progression. Since shape and density could cause large variations in the calculated natural frequencies, patient-specific FE models are needed for accurate estimation of bone natural frequencies.
The authors report on the first experiences with the prototype of a surgical tool for cranial remodeling. The device enables the surgeon to transfer statistical information, represented in a model, into the disfigured bone. The model is derived from a currently evolving databank of normal head shapes. Ultimately, the databank will provide a set of standard models covering the statistical range of normal head shapes, thus providing the required template for any standard remodeling procedure as well as customized models for intended overcorrection. To date, this technique has been used in the surgical treatment of 14 infants (age range 6-12 months) with craniosynostosis. In all 14 cases, the designated esthetic result, embodied by the selected model, has been achieved, without morbidity or mortality. Frame-based reconstruction provides the required tools to precisely realize the surgical reproduction of the model shape. It enables the establishment of a self-referring system, feeding back postoperative growth patterns, recorded by 3D follow-up, into the model design.
Geometric morphometrics plays an important role in evolutionary studies. The state-of-the-art in this field are landmark-based methods. Since the landmarks usually need to be placed manually, only a limited number of landmarks are generally used to represent the shape of an anatomical structure. As a result, shape characteristics that cannot be properly represented by small sets of landmarks are disregarded.
In this study, we present a method that is free of this limitation. The method takes into account the whole shape of an anatomical structure, which is represented as a surface, hence the term ‘surface-based morphometrics’. Correspondence between two surfaces is established by defining a partitioning of the surfaces into homologous surface patches. The first step for the generation of a surface partitioning is to place landmarks on the surface. Subsequently, the landmarks are connected by curves lying on the surface. The curves, called ‘surface paths’, might either follow specific anatomical features or they can be geodesics, that is, shortest paths on the surface. One important requirement, however, is that the resulting surface path networks are topologically equivalent across all surfaces. Once the surface path networks have been defined, the surfaces are decomposed into patches according to the path networks.
This approach has several advantages. One of them is that we can discretize the surface by as many points as desired. Thus, even fine shape details can be resolved if this is of interest for the study. Since a point discretization is used, another advantage is that well-established analysis methods for landmark-based morphometrics can be utilized. Finally, the shapes can be easily morphed into one another, thereby greatly supporting the understanding of shape changes across all considered specimens.
To show the potential of the described method for evolutionary studies of biological specimens, we applied the method to the para-basisphenoid complex of the snake genus Eirenis. By using this anatomical structure as example, we present all the steps that are necessary for surface-based morphometrics, including the segmentation of the para-basisphenoid complex from micro-CT data sets. We also show some first results using statistical analysis as well as classification methods based on the presented technique.
Several non-invasive methods are common practice in natural sciences today. Here we present how they can be applied and contribute to current topics in cephalopod (paleo-) biology. Different methods will be compared in terms of time necessary to acquire the data, amount of data, accuracy/resolution, minimum/maximum size of objects that can be studied, the degree of post-processing needed and availability. The main application of the methods is seen in morphometry and volumetry of cephalopod shells. In particular we present a method for precise buoyancy calculation. Therefore, cephalopod shells were scanned together with different reference bodies, an approach developed in medical sciences. It is necessary to know the volume of the reference bodies, which should have similar absorption properties like the object of interest. Exact volumes can be obtained from surface scanning. Depending on the dimensions of the study object different computed tomography techniques were applied.
Several non-invasive methods are common practice in natural sciences today. Here we present how they can be applied and contribute to current topics in cephalopod (paleo-) biology. Different methods will be compared in terms of time necessary to acquire the data, amount of data, accuracy/resolution, minimum/maximum size of objects that can be studied, the degree of post-processing needed and availability. The main application of the methods is seen in morphometry and volumetry of cephalopod shells. In particular we present a method for precise buoyancy calculation. Therefore, cephalopod shells were scanned together with different reference bodies, an approach developed in medical sciences. It is necessary to know the volume of the reference bodies, which should have similar absorption properties like the object of interest. Exact volumes can be obtained from surface scanning. Depending on the dimensions of the study object different computed tomography techniques were applied.
We propose a novel GPU-based approach to render virtual X-ray projections of deformable tetrahedral meshes. These meshes represent the shape and the internal density distribution of a particular anatomical structure and are derived from statistical shape and intensity models (SSIMs). We apply our method to improve the geometric reconstruction of 3D anatomy (e.g.\ pelvic bone) from 2D X-ray images. For that purpose, shape and density of a tetrahedral mesh are varied and virtual X-ray projections are generated within an optimization process until the similarity between the computed virtual X-ray and the respective anatomy depicted in a given clinical X-ray is maximized. The OpenGL implementation presented in this work deforms and projects tetrahedral meshes of high resolution (200.000+ tetrahedra) at interactive rates. It generates virtual X-rays that accurately depict the density distribution of an anatomy of interest. Compared to existing methods that accumulate X-ray attenuation in deformable meshes, our novel approach significantly boosts the deformation/projection performance. The proposed projection algorithm scales better with respect to mesh resolution and complexity of the density distribution, and the combined deformation and projection on the GPU scales better with respect to the number of deformation parameters. The gain in performance allows for a larger number of cycles in the optimization process. Consequently, it reduces the risk of being stuck in a local optimum. We believe that our approach contributes in orthopedic surgery, where 3D anatomy information needs to be extracted from 2D X-rays to support surgeons in better planning joint replacements.
We present a software planning tool that provides intuitive visual feedback for finding suitable positions of hearing implants in the human temporal bone. After an automatic reconstruction of the temporal bone anatomy the tool pre-positions the implant and allows the user to adjust its position interactively with simple 2D dragging and rotation operations on the bone's surface. During this procedure, visual elements like warning labels on the implant or color encoded bone density information on the bone geometry provide guidance for the determination of a suitable fit.