Biomechanical Analysis of the Lung: A Feature-Based Approach Using Customized Finite Element Meshes

T. A. Sundaram, J. C. Gee University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States Synopsis We describe a feature-based approach to non-rigid registration of two-dimensional pulmonary MR images. Finite element meshes are constructed to highlight anatomical features evident on a sagittal lung view. Resulting displacements are compared to dense fields extrapolated from manually placed vascular landmarks. Results achieved using customized meshes demonstrate better correspondence to the landmark fields than those acquired using quadrilateral grids. Landmark constraints further improve the solution’s correspondence to the expected result. This work demonstrates the advantages of using feature-based techniques to capture lung deformation, and lays the groundwork for biomechanical modeling of the lung using the finite element method.