Biomechanical Modeling from In-Vivo Data

• Published in: Digital Human Modeling pp. 133 - 160
• Main Authors: Bertozzi, Luigi, Stagni, Rita, Fantozzi, Silvia, Cappello, Angelo
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Springer Berlin / Heidelberg 2008; Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Anterior Cruciate Ligament; Cruciate Ligament; Knee Joint; Motor Task; Posterior Cruciate Ligament
• ISBN: 3540894292; 9783540894292
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-89430-8_8

Biomechanics assists in understanding the living organ functions both in normal conditions and after alterations. It plays an important role in the development of new prostheses, tools and procedures in the diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitative fields. Although experimental approaches produce direct and reliable measurements of the variables of interest, they are invasive and can alter physiological conditions and limit generalization. With the evolution of the medical and the diagnostic technologies, such as MRIs, CTs, EMGs, and EEGs, we can investigate the function of organs and tissues of a living and healthy subject without any or less invasiveness. In this Chapter, the authors survey the states-of-the-art of the biomechanics modeling methods and present a case study of the subject-specific cruciate ligaments model of the knee joint for living activities. In the model, the cross-sectional area and the reference length are estimated by means of subject-specific nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and 3D video-fluoroscopy respectively.