title: Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Peripheral Nerve Internal Fascicular Groups.
abstract: Peripheral nerves are important pathways for receiving afferent sensory impulses and sending out efferent motor instructions, as carried out by sensory nerve fibers and motor nerve fibers. It has remained a great challenge to functionally reconnect nerve internal fiber bundles (or fascicles) in nerve repair. One possible solution may be to establish a 3D nerve fascicle visualization system. This study described the key technology of 3D peripheral nerve fascicle reconstruction. Firstly, fixed nerve segments were embedded with position lines, cryostat-sectioned continuously, stained and imaged histologically. Position line cross-sections were identified using a trained support vector machine method, and the coordinates of their central pixels were obtained. Then, nerve section images were registered using the bilinear method, and edges of fascicles were extracted using an improved gradient vector flow snake method. Subsequently, fascicle types were identified automatically using the multi-directional gradient and second-order gradient method. Finally, a 3D virtual model of internal fascicles was obtained after section images were processed. This technique was successfully applied for 3D reconstruction for the median nerve of the hand-wrist and cubital fossa regions and the gastrocnemius nerve. This nerve internal fascicle 3D reconstruction technology would be helpful for aiding peripheral nerve repair and virtual surgery.
authors.affiliation: School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
authors.forename: Yingchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Sansom Institute for Health Research and School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Jianghui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Bone and Joint Surgery, Shenzhen Sixth People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518000, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics trauma and Microsurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics trauma and Microsurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510080, China.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Sansom Institute for Health Research and School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
authors.forename: Cory J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Xian
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008475:Median Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology*