A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine

In many fields of spinal health care, efforts have been made to offer individualized products and therapy tailored to the patient. Therefore, the prevailing alignment of the spine must be considered, which varies from person to person and depends on the movement and loading situation. With the help...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ivanna Kramer, Sabine Bauer, Valentin Keppler
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-04-01
Series:Biomechanics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7078/3/2/15
_version_ 1797596009862266880
author Ivanna Kramer
Sabine Bauer
Valentin Keppler
author_facet Ivanna Kramer
Sabine Bauer
Valentin Keppler
author_sort Ivanna Kramer
collection DOAJ
description In many fields of spinal health care, efforts have been made to offer individualized products and therapy tailored to the patient. Therefore, the prevailing alignment of the spine must be considered, which varies from person to person and depends on the movement and loading situation. With the help of patient-specific simulation models of the spine, the geometrical parameters in a specific body position can be analyzed, and the load situation of the spinal structures during dynamic processes can be assessed. However, to enable the future usability of such simulation models in medical reality, as many patient-specific conditions as possible need to be considered. Another critical requirement is that simulation models must be quickly and easily created for use in clinical routine. Building new or adapting existing spine multibody simulation (MBS) models is time-consuming due to their complex structure. To overcome this limitation, we developed a simple, efficient method by which to automatically adjust the lumbar curvature orientation of the spine model. The method extracts a new 3D lordosis curve from patient-specific data in the preprocessing step. Then the vertebrae and all linked spinal structures of an existing spinal simulation model are transformed so that the lumbar lordosis follows the curve obtained in the first part of the method. To validate the proposed approach, three independent experts measured the Cobb angle in the source and the generated spine alignments. We calculated a mean absolute error of 1.29° between the generated samples and the corresponded ground truth. Furthermore, the minor deviation in the root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.0012 m<sup>2</sup> between the areas under the alignment curves in the original and target lordosis curvatures indicated the accuracy of the proposed method. The proposed method demonstrated that a new patient-specific simulation model can be generated in a short time from any suitable data source.
first_indexed 2024-03-11T02:44:28Z
format Article
id doaj.art-260faa2a13a145ef943fc99f8d9f3754
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2673-7078
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-11T02:44:28Z
publishDate 2023-04-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Biomechanics
spelling doaj.art-260faa2a13a145ef943fc99f8d9f37542023-11-18T09:24:02ZengMDPI AGBiomechanics2673-70782023-04-013216618010.3390/biomechanics3020015A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the SpineIvanna Kramer0Sabine Bauer1Valentin Keppler2Institute for Computational Visualistics, University of Koblenz, 56070 Koblenz, GermanyInstitute of Medical Technology and Information Processing, University of Koblenz, 56070 Koblenz, GermanyInstitute of Medical Technology and Information Processing, University of Koblenz, 56070 Koblenz, GermanyIn many fields of spinal health care, efforts have been made to offer individualized products and therapy tailored to the patient. Therefore, the prevailing alignment of the spine must be considered, which varies from person to person and depends on the movement and loading situation. With the help of patient-specific simulation models of the spine, the geometrical parameters in a specific body position can be analyzed, and the load situation of the spinal structures during dynamic processes can be assessed. However, to enable the future usability of such simulation models in medical reality, as many patient-specific conditions as possible need to be considered. Another critical requirement is that simulation models must be quickly and easily created for use in clinical routine. Building new or adapting existing spine multibody simulation (MBS) models is time-consuming due to their complex structure. To overcome this limitation, we developed a simple, efficient method by which to automatically adjust the lumbar curvature orientation of the spine model. The method extracts a new 3D lordosis curve from patient-specific data in the preprocessing step. Then the vertebrae and all linked spinal structures of an existing spinal simulation model are transformed so that the lumbar lordosis follows the curve obtained in the first part of the method. To validate the proposed approach, three independent experts measured the Cobb angle in the source and the generated spine alignments. We calculated a mean absolute error of 1.29° between the generated samples and the corresponded ground truth. Furthermore, the minor deviation in the root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.0012 m<sup>2</sup> between the areas under the alignment curves in the original and target lordosis curvatures indicated the accuracy of the proposed method. The proposed method demonstrated that a new patient-specific simulation model can be generated in a short time from any suitable data source.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7078/3/2/15biomechanical model creationpersonalized lumbar spine modellumbar lordosisalignment adaption
spellingShingle Ivanna Kramer
Sabine Bauer
Valentin Keppler
A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine
Biomechanics
biomechanical model creation
personalized lumbar spine model
lumbar lordosis
alignment adaption
title A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine
title_full A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine
title_fullStr A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine
title_full_unstemmed A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine
title_short A Simple, Efficient Method for an Automatic Adjustment of the Lumbar Curvature Alignment in an MBS Model of the Spine
title_sort simple efficient method for an automatic adjustment of the lumbar curvature alignment in an mbs model of the spine
topic biomechanical model creation
personalized lumbar spine model
lumbar lordosis
alignment adaption
url https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7078/3/2/15
work_keys_str_mv AT ivannakramer asimpleefficientmethodforanautomaticadjustmentofthelumbarcurvaturealignmentinanmbsmodelofthespine
AT sabinebauer asimpleefficientmethodforanautomaticadjustmentofthelumbarcurvaturealignmentinanmbsmodelofthespine
AT valentinkeppler asimpleefficientmethodforanautomaticadjustmentofthelumbarcurvaturealignmentinanmbsmodelofthespine
AT ivannakramer simpleefficientmethodforanautomaticadjustmentofthelumbarcurvaturealignmentinanmbsmodelofthespine
AT sabinebauer simpleefficientmethodforanautomaticadjustmentofthelumbarcurvaturealignmentinanmbsmodelofthespine
AT valentinkeppler simpleefficientmethodforanautomaticadjustmentofthelumbarcurvaturealignmentinanmbsmodelofthespine