Vascular elasticity determined mass-spring model for virtual reality simulators

In vascular interventional surgery, the virtual reality simulation is indispensable for catheter-based operation system because it provide the surgeon of visual scene between catheter and vascular. However, most VR systems only present the vascular geometry model which indicates vascular is a rigid object. So as to display the deformation of vascular, it is necessary to consider the vascular physical model. Several previous work uses mass-spring method (MSM) to characterise the vascular but few mentions how to determine the spring coefficient which is critical to vascular shape change. Thus, the objective of this paper is to use vascular mechanical properties identified spring coefficient to simulate vascular deformation. Instead of setting it manually, we analyse the elasticity distribution on the vascular wall and identify spring coefficient by the analytical results. In this way, the spring coefficient varies with circumferential force along the vascular. After the stiffness matrix of MSM is derived, the vascular deformation is relevant to the vascular radius. The analytical results suggest that the vascular with large radius deforms less dramatically than that of small radius.