A 3D multi-scale skeletal muscle model to predict active and passive responses. Application to intra-abdominal pressure prediction

Karami, Mina ; Zohoor, Hassan ; Calvo, Begoña (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Grasa, Jorge (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Computational models have been used extensively to study the behavior of skeletal muscle structures, however few of these models are able to evaluate their 3D active response using as input experimental measurements such as electromyography. Hence, improving the activation mechanisms in simulation models can provide interesting and useful achievements in this field. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to develop a multi-scale chemo-mechanical material model to consider the active behavior of skeletal muscle in 3D geometries. The model was used to investigate the response of abdominal muscles which represent a challenging scenario due to their complex geometry and anatomical conditions. Realistic muscle geometries and other tissues of the human abdomen, including transverse abdominis (TA), internal oblique (IO), external oblique (EO), rectus abdominis (RA), rectus sheath (RSH), linea alba (LA) and aponeurosis (APO) were considered. Since the geometry of these tissues was obtained from magnetic resonance images, an iterative algorithm was implemented to find the initial stress state that achieve the equilibrium of them with the intra-abdominal pressure. In order to investigate the functionality of the proposed model, the increase of intra-abdominal pressure was calculated during cough in the supine position while the Ca2+ signal for activating the muscles was set in regard to experimentally recorded electrical activity from previous studies. The amount of intra-abdominal pressure calculated by the model is consistent with reported experimental results. This model can serve as a virtual laboratory to analyze the role of the abdominal wall components in different conditions, such as the performance of meshes used for repairing hernia defects.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2023.116222

Año: 2023

Publicado en: Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 415 (2023), 116222 [23 pp.]
ISSN: 0045-7825

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/T24-23R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2020-113822RB-C21

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Mec.Med.Cont. y Teor.Est. (Dpto. Ingeniería Mecánica)