SU‐F‐BRF‐01: A GPU Framework for Developing Interactive High‐Resolution Patient‐Specific Biomechanical Models

Purpose: To develop a GPU-based framework that can generate highresolution and patient-specific biomechanical models from a given simulation CT and contoured structures, optimized to run at interactive speeds, for addressing adaptive radiotherapy objectives. Method: A Massspring-damping (MSD) model was generated from a given simulation CT. The model's mass elements were generated for every voxel of anatomy, and positioned in a deformation space in the GPU memory. MSD connections were established between neighboring mass elements in a dense distribution. Contoured internal structures allowed control over elastic material properties of different tissues. Once the model was initialized in GPU memory, skeletal anatomy was actuated using rigid-body transformations, while soft tissues were governed by elastic corrective forces and constraints, which included tensile forces, shear forces, and spring damping forces. The model was validated by applying a known load to a soft tissue block and comparing the observed deformation to ground truth calculations from established elastic mechanics. Results: Our analyses showed that both local and global load experiments yielded results with a correlation coefficient R{sup 2} > 0.98 compared to ground truth. Models were generated for several anatomical regions. Head and neck models accurately simulated posture changes by rotating the skeletal anatomy in threemore » dimensions. Pelvic models were developed for realistic deformations for changes in bladder volume. Thoracic models demonstrated breast deformation due to gravity when changing treatment position from supine to prone. The GPU framework performed at greater than 30 iterations per second for over 1 million mass elements with up to 26 MSD connections each. Conclusions: Realistic simulations of site-specific, complex posture and physiological changes were simulated at interactive speeds using patient data. Incorporating such a model with live patient tracking would facilitate real time assessment of variations of the actual anatomy and delivered dose for adaptive intervention and re-planning.« less