Development of a simplified, reproducible, parametric 3D model of the talus

Abstract

Computational foot models have significant application in surgical decision making, injury and disease diagnosis and prevention, sports performance analysis and footwear engineering. However, due to the substantial time in model building and the heavy computational costs from the complexity of the models, daily clinical application of these foot models has yet to be achieved. Much of the previous research adopted a detailed-geometry approach in modeling bones that potentially contributed to the heavy computational costs. In this research, we developed a computational talus model based on CT section image data, image reconstruction and segmentation, contact surface identification, standard shape fitting, and finite element auto meshing algorithms. Modeling the bones as rigid is common, and modeling the contact surfaces only for the rigid body saves additional computational resources. Priority, therefore, in the shape fitting with optimization is given to the contact surfaces of the talus. Thirteen sets (9 males and 4 females) of CT section data were obtained. Image reconstruction, segmentation and bone labeling were conducted on each set of CT data to identify talus and its adjacent bones. Contact surfaces of the talus were then identified based on bone spatial relationships. Apart from the talar dome surface which was fitted by a 3rd-order polynomial, standard shapes such as ellipsoids and planes were used to fit the selected contact surfaces so that the geometrical parameters maintain physical significance. Based on these parameters, we automatically recreated and meshed the least-squares fitted shapes rapidly with limited elements. Last, mean major contact surfaces of the talus were obtained and fitted by standard shapes. Although the number of samples in this study was relatively small, our method provides sufficient and accurate geometric parameters of these contact surfaces to completely describe and reproduce the talus, on both a subject specific and average basis. The method for describing the talus here helps to parametrize computational models using planes and ellipsoids, improves surgical decision making and implants with a more precise and physically significant measures, and the description provides bone geometric parameters which can later be used to relate risk analysis for bone shape specific injury rates.