Research on Biomechanical Model of Children with Pectus Excavatum

Overlapping threshold of costal cartilage and muscle tissue is the main issue of pectus excavatum(PE) modeling all the time. A rapid and accurate three dimensional (3D) model was described based on Mimics10.01. The contrast of thorax CT image can be strengthened in advance. The pixels of rigid skeleton and costal cartilage were separated by threshold segment, therefore, we could get rigid skeleton'3D model and costal cartilage's 3D model by region growing. An integrated 3D model was complied by assembling them. Modification was the necessary procedure to acquire a more accurate model, such as erasing noise, drawing missing pixels. The function of editing mask is that it could filter noise which had close pixels with costal cartilage. Surface smooth processing was required to improve the definition of 3D model which we had got. As a result, the shortcomings of traditional method and GE workstation can be overcome. This method has important reference value for finite element analysis (FEA) and draft program of the Nuss procedure.