Biomechanical Diagnostic, Pre-Planning and Outcome Tools to improve Musculoskeletal Surgery

Within the BioMechTools programme we will develop diagnostic and evaluation tools to quantify the degenerative status of orthopaedic patients. Our focus lies on the lower extremities. This project will open new research fields related to biomechanical patient assessment and modelling of musculoskeletal pathologies.

Project Description
Participants

Project Description

The aetiology of many musculoskeletal diseases is related to biomechanical factors. However, the tools used by clinicians and researchers to assess the biomechanical condition of patients are often crude and subjective, leading to non-optimal patient analyses and care. For example, clinicians usually base their diagnosis on their own, subjective, interpretation of static imaging data like MRI-images and CT-scans. Yet, it is much more powerful to visualize the pathological tissue in a dynamic manner, i.e. a tear in a meniscus is easier to see when the meniscus is moving than when it is imaged statically.

The Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, in collaboration with the Department of Biomechanical Engineering (University of Twente), has been very successful in delivering imaging modalities and in generating patient specific musculoskeletal and finite element models. These types of models can be used to analyse the pathology in detail and to assess the biomechanical consequences of various surgical scenarios. See, for example, our research line ‘Musculoskeletal Biomechanics’ and the ‘TLEMsafe‘ project.

With the BioMechTools project we aim to develop MRI and Ultrasound tools to quantify tissue strains under dynamic circumstances. Innovations related to imaging, sensor technology and biomechanical modelling will be utilized to generate versatile, accurate and objective methods to quantify the (pathological) musculoskeletal condition of the lower extremity of patients in a unique manner. These advanced diagnostic, pre-planning and outcome tools will provide clinicians and researchers with detailed biomechanical analysis about abnormal tissue deformations, pathological loading of the joints, abnormal stresses in the hard and soft tissues, and aberrant joint kinematics.

Our research will be done in collaboration with the BioMedical NMR group of the Technical University of Eindhoven and the Radiology department of the Academic Medical Centre Amsterdam for the dynamic MRI imaging and with the ‘Medical UltraSound Imaging Center’ of the Radboudumc for the ultrasound techniques.

Our key objectives are:

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Participants

Supervisors

Principle Investigator:
Co-Supervisor:
Nico Verdonschot, Prof. Dr. Ir.
André Sprengers, Ph.D.

Finite Element and Musculoskeletal Modelling

Ph.D.-student:
Ph.D.-student:
Ph.D.-student:
Technician:
Hamid Naghibi-Beidokhti, Ph.D.
Marco Marra, Ph.D.
Vacancy
Vacancy

Quantification of Deformations using Dynamic MRI Techniques

TU/e
AMC
TU/e partner:
TU/e partner:
AMC partner:
Ph.D.-student:
BioMedical NMR group
Radiology: Novel MRI techniques
Klaas Nicolay, Prof. Dr.
Gustav Strijkers, Dr. Ir.
A.J. Nederveen, Dr. Ir.
Valentina Mazzoli, Ph.D.

Quantification of Deformations using Ultrasound Techniques

Radboudumc
MUSIC partner:
Ph.D.-student:
Medical UltraSound Imaging Center
Chris de Korte, Prof. Dr.
Kaj Gijsbertse, Ph.D.

The Ambulant Gait Analysis System and
the Ultrasound-based Kinematic Analysis System

Utwente
Utwente
Utwente partner:
Utwente partner:
Ph.D.-student:
Technician:
Department of Biomechanical Engineering
Biomedical Signals And Systems
Bart Koopman, Prof. Dr. Ir.
Peter H. Veltink, Prof. Dr. Ir.
Kenan Niu, Ph.D.
Victor Sluiter, B.Eng.

ERC short-list

Awarded to:
Acronym:
Funded by:
Call details:
Duration:
Prof. Dr. Ir. Nico Verdonschot
BioMechTools
The European Research Council (ERC-Advanced Grant)
ERC-2012-ADG LS7
60 months (from May 2013)

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