title: Geometrical aspects of patient-specific modelling of the intervertebral disc: collagen fibre orientation and residual stress distribution.
abstract: Patient-specific modelling of the spine is a powerful tool to explore the prevention and the treatment of injuries and pathologies. Albeit several methods have been proposed for the discretization of the bony structures, the efficient representation of the intervertebral disc anisotropy remains a challenge, especially with complex geometries. Furthermore, the swelling of the disc's nucleus pulposus is normally added to the model after geometry definition, at the cost of changes of the material properties and an unrealistic description of the prestressed state. The aim of this study was to develop techniques, which preserve the patient-specific geometry of the disc and allow the representation of the system anisotropy and residual stresses, independent of the system discretization. Depending on the modelling features, the developed approaches resulted in a response of patient-specific models that was in good agreement with the physiological response observed in corresponding experiments. The proposed methods represent a first step towards the development of patient-specific models of the disc which respect both the geometry and the mechanical properties of the specific disc.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. gmarini@ethz.ch.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marini
authors.affiliation: Integrated Scientific Service AG, Biel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Studer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomechanics, TUHH Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.affiliation: Institute for Forensic Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Püschel
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Ferguson
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D066230:Patient-Specific Modeling; D011312:Pressure; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen
keywords: Collagen distribution; Intervertebral disc; Prestress; Swelling pressure