Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Autonomous Finite Elements (AFE) in Clinical Applications – Are They Precursors of a Paradigm Shift?

Zohar Yosibash, Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Israel; now on Sabbatical Leave at Pratt School of Engineering, Duke Univ, Durham, NC, USA

Abstract

Finite element analysis requires a qualified analyst to generate the necessary input data, verify the output and post process the analysis results for a meaningful conclusion. The required expertise and labor efforts precluded the use of FEA in daily medical practice for example. Recent scientific advancements such as low dose CT scans, machine learning, and high order FEA which allows an inherent verification methodology of the numerical accuracy, make it possible to provide a fully autonomous process for assessing bone strength and fracture risk. This autonomous process, that we refer to as autonomous streamline, named autonomous finite element (AFE) analysis, introduces a paradigm shift in the use of FEA.

This talk addresses a novel AFE [1] for patient-specific analysis of human femurs used nowadays in clinical practice: it involves an automatic segmentation of femurs from CT-scans by Unet neural networks, an automatic mesh generation and application of boundary conditions based on anatomical points, a high-order FE analysis withnumerical error control, and finally an automatic report with a clear assessment of bone fracture risk. Two specific applications of AFE are presented:
a) Determination of the risk of fracture for patients with tumors of the femur and whether a prophylactic surgery is needed [2,3].
b) Identifying patients with high hip fracture risk as a result of fall on the side [4].

References:
[1] Yosibash Z, Myers K, Trabelsi N, Sternheim A, "Autonomous FEs (AFE) - A stride toward personalized medicine", Comp. Math. Appl., 80(11), pp. 2417-2432, 2020.
[2] Sternheim A, Giladi O, Gortzak Y, Drexler M, Salai M, Trabelsi N, Milgrom C and Yosibash Z, “Pathological fracture risk assessment in patients with femoral metastases using CT-based finite element methods. A retrospective clinical study”, Bone, 110, pp. 215-220, 2018.
[3] Sternheim A, Traub F, Trabelsi N, Gortzak Y, Dadia S, Snir N, Gorfine M and Yosibash Z., “When and where do patients with bone metastases actually break their femur? A CT-based finite element analysis of patients”, Bone & Joint Jour., 102-B, No. 5, pp. 638-645, 2020.
[4] Rotman D., Arieli G., Rojas-Lievano J., Schermann H., Trabelsi N., Salai M., Yosibash Z. and Sternheim A., "Assessing hip fracture risk in type-2 diabetic patients using CT-based autonomous finite element methods - a feasibility study", Bone Joint Jour., In Press. 2021

 

Biography

Zohar Yosibash is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Computational Mechanics and Experimental Biomechanics Laboratory @ Tel-Aviv University, Israel.  He is currently at Sabbatical Leave at Pratt School of Engineering, Duke Univ, Durham, NC, USA

1987 – B.Sc. Aerospace Eng. – Technion, Israel Inst. of Technology.
1992 – M.Sc. Applied Mathematics – Tel Aviv University, Israel.
1994 – D.Sc. Mechanical Eng. – Washington Univ, St. Louis, USA
1995-2017 - Prof. of Mechanical Eng @ Ben-Gurion Univ, USA
2017-Present - Prof. of Mechanical Eng @ Tel-Aviv Univ, USA

2002-2007 - Visiting Prof. @ Div. of Applied Math, Brown Univ
2009-2012 - Hans Fisher Senior Fellow @ Technical Univ of Munich (TUM)
Since 2013 - Scientific Ambassador of TUM
2016-2021 - President of the Israel Association for Computational Methods in Mechanics
Since 2000 - IACM Fellow, ESIS Fellow