A methodology to generate structured computational grids from DICOM data: application to a patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) model

Abstract

This study presents the generation of a multi-block structured grid on a real abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) acquired from Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) data. With the use of a computed tomography exam (or medical images in standard DICOM format), the shape of a human organ is extracted and a structured computational grid is created. The structured grid generation is done by utilising Floater's and Gopalsamy et al.'s algorithm. The proposed methodology is applied to the AAA case, but it may also be applied to other human organs, enabling the scientist to develop an advanced patient-specific model. More importantly, the proposed methodology provides a precise reconstruction of the human organs, which is required in an AAA, where small variations in the geometry may alter the flow field, the stresses exerted on the walls and finally the rupture risk of the aneurysm.

Keywords:

• abdominal aortic aneurysm
• structured grid generation
• patient specific
• 3D reconstruction

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Diagnostic Medical Center: Encephalos–Euromedica (Rizariou 3, Halandri 15233, Greece) and Mr D.A. Verganelakis and Mr S. Despotopoulos for their contribution in the data collection and visualisation of the DICOM images.