Image-processing Solutions for Biomedical Design, Modeling, and Simulation

By DE Editors

At the recent COMSOL Conference 2007 held in Grenoble, France, Simpleware Ltd. (Exeter, UK) and COMSOL Inc. (Burlington, MA) announced a partnership to provide an export interface from Simpleware's 3D image-based meshing software +ScanFE to COMSOL Multiphysics 3.4, a multiphysics simulation environment.

The interface enables biomedical and bioengineering users to directly export high-quality meshes of 3D MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography),and MicroCT (microcomputed tomography) scan data created with +ScanFE to COMSOL Multiphysics 3.4 for modeling and simulation without requiring re-meshing or pre-processing.

A key component of Simpleware's ScanIP suite of suite of software for converting 3D images into high-quality meshes, +ScanFE provides a suite of algorithms and a toolset for converting segmented 3D image data into multipart volumetric models. +ScanFE generates high-quality volume and surface meshes, contact surfaces, and material properties from the segmented data, all of which can now be directly exported to COMSOL Multiphysics.

Simpleware's new Export to COMSOL Multiphysics functionality is a simple two-step operation. First, ScanIP segments the regions of interest from the scan data, and then +ScanFE generates an input file for COMSOL Multiphysics. Once you import the file, you can leverage COMSOL to model, simulate, and design biomedical applications such as hip joint replacements, vascular therapy, and drug delivery.

A few of the benefits of the +ScanFE and COMSOL Multiphysics partnership include the ability to create meshes from 3D scan data, such as MRI, CT and MicroCT, and directly make them available for true multiphysics simulations without intermediate steps such as re-meshing and pre-processing. Plus, users can integrate CAD and image data interactively, and then automatically mesh the resulting combined model; users can insert implants and blood stents into the original scan data and then run simulations involving complex interactions between implant, tissue, and blood; and much more.

For more information about +ScanFE and the ScanIP, visit Simpleware. Go to COMSOL for full details on COMSOL Multiphysics 3.4.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.