title: The Virtual Family--development of surface-based anatomical models of two adults and two children for dosimetric simulations.
abstract: The objective of this study was to develop anatomically correct whole body human models of an adult male (34 years old), an adult female (26 years old) and two children (an 11-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy) for the optimized evaluation of electromagnetic exposure. These four models are referred to as the Virtual Family. They are based on high resolution magnetic resonance (MR) images of healthy volunteers. More than 80 different tissue types were distinguished during the segmentation. To improve the accuracy and the effectiveness of the segmentation, a novel semi-automated tool was used to analyze and segment the data. All tissues and organs were reconstructed as three-dimensional (3D) unstructured triangulated surface objects, yielding high precision images of individual features of the body. This greatly enhances the meshing flexibility and the accuracy with respect to thin tissue layers and small organs in comparison with the traditional voxel-based representation of anatomical models. Conformal computational techniques were also applied. The techniques and tools developed in this study can be used to more effectively develop future models and further improve the accuracy of the models for various applications. For research purposes, the four models are provided for free to the scientific community.
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society, Zeughausstr. 43, 8004 Zürich, Switzerland. christ@itis.ethz.ch
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Christ
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kainz
authors.forename: Eckhart G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Honegger
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zefferer
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Neufeld
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rascher
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Janka
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bautz
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Berthold
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kiefer
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Hollenbach
authors.forename: Jianxiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oberle
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Szczerba
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kam
authors.forename: Joshua W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Guag
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kuster
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D000328:Adult; D001331:Automation; D002648:Child; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*