Urinary Incontinence Prediction

 

Background/Problem

To create a dynamic patient-specific mechanical characterization of the etiology of stress urinary incontinence (SUI), a subject-specific computer model have been developed to characterize the interaction between anatomical structures during the physical activities that elicit SUI in the course of daily living. This research will lead to superior methods of diagnosing and treating female SUI based on a better understanding of its mechanisms achieved.

Approach

For this procedure, a subject-specific finite element (FE) pelvis mesh model generation procedure has been developed to build the realistic geometric female pelvis model from subject-specific high resolution MR images. Mechanical tissue properties of affected organ structures are determined by performing soft tissue testing procedure using uniaxial or biaxial testing systems on tissue specimens from fresh cadavers. An ambulatory device which includes a tri-axial accelerometer is placed and stabilized on the lower back at the midline between L5 and S1 of the specific female subject to measure the acceleration of her pelvis in three axial directions during a jumping task

Results/Conclusions

Results show that there are high level stress distribution during the jumping process across the Pelvic Floor, which indicates that the Pelvic Floor has great influence on the biomechanical response of the female pelvis. The study demonstrates the feasibility of applying a subject-specific computer modeling approach in female SUI research.
The Next step is to perform dynamic FE analysis based on the subject-specific pelvis models of the participant subjects to characterize the interaction between anatomical structures during the physical activities.

Team Members:

• Dr. Rob Sweet
• Yingchun Zhang
• Greg Metzger
• Dan Burke
• Arthur Erdman
• Gerald Timm

Project View

Reconstructed Female Pelvis

Ambulatory Diagram

FE Result