Estimating the Relative Stiffness between a Hepatic Lesion and the Liver Parenchyma through Biomechanical Simulations of the Breathing Process

[EN] In this paper, a method to in vivo estimate the relative stifness between a hepatic lesion and the liver parenchyma is presented. Tis method is based on the fnite element simulation of the deformation that the liver undergoes during the breathing process. Boundary conditions are obtained through a registration algorithm known as Coherent Point Drif (CPD), which compares the liver form in two phases of the breathing process. Finally, the relative stifness of the tumour with respect to the liver parenchyma is calculated by means of a Genetic Algorithm, which does a blind search of this parameter. Te relative stifness together with the clinical information of the patient can be used to establish the type of hepatic lesion. Te developed methodology was frst applied to a test case, i.e., to a control case where the parameters were known, in order to verify its validity. Afer that, the method was applied to two real cases and low errors were obtained.
This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through research projects DPI2013-40859-R and TIN2014-52033-R, both also supported by European FEDER funds.