인체 순환기계 질환 극복을 위한 슈퍼컴퓨팅 활용 기초기술 연구

Abstract

○ 초고성능 컴퓨팅 기반의 생체역학 시뮬레이션을 통해 non-invasive 방식의 순환기계질환 진단 기술 개발 - 순환기계 질환 치료현장 활용에 적합한 3차원 모델 생성 및 적용기술 개발 ․ 순환기계 영상데이터 통합 처리 및 고해상도 3차원 혈관 형상데이터 자동 추출/복원 기술 ․ 대규모 격자 생성, 최적 해석조건 분석․도출을 위한 대규모/최적 전처리 기술 ․ Parameter 기반 3D 가상 혈관 모델 생성 기술 연구 - 슈퍼컴퓨팅 기반 대규모 순환기계 질환 생체역학 시뮬레이션 기술 연구․개발 ․ Lattice Boltzmann-Immersed Boundary Method 활용 전산 점도계 Solver 구축 ․ 슈퍼컴퓨팅 기반 환자 맞춤형 혈액 특성 적용 Non-Newtonian 시뮬레이션 기술 ․ 대규모 혈류 거동 해석 결과의 정밀 분석을 위한 대용량 데이터 처리 및 VR/AR 가시화 기술 - 생체역학 시뮬레이션 결과의 예측 정확도 검증 ․ 임상학적 데이터와의 상호 비교를 통한 생체역학 시뮬레이션 결과의 예측 정확도 검증 ․ 개발 기술들의 前임상 및 초기 임상시험 등에 향후 적용을 위한 진단 프로세스 최적화 연구 - 국내외 슈퍼컴퓨팅 기반 생체역학 시뮬레이션 기술 분석 및 적용 가능성 연구 ․ 미국, 일본 그리고 EU 등에서 추진되는 해당 분야 연구동향 조사 ․ 슈퍼컴퓨팅 기반의 차세대 순환기계 질환 진단 및 치료 적용 가능성 연구

The circulatory disease has been currently classified as disease which has been frequently found inthe advanced countries due to aging and known as the main cause of death. According to WHO statistics, average populations who died due to circulatory disease in every year is equivalent to 1/3 in death of the world population that is about 1.67 million. Clinician has also usually taken a diagnostic method that detects the degree of vascular stenosis detected by using pressure drop within the vessel, which is directly measured by inserting pressure wire into the vessel, so called, FractionalFlow Reserve (FFR). However, an invasive interventional method, used to obtain the FFR value, has some practical problems: 1. Pressure wire is expensive for the patients to pay. 2. The method using pressure wire has been physical burden, which has induced artificial stenosis. 3. When doctors need to decide a treatment plan, sometimes he or she misses an appropriate timing for treatments because it is time-consuming and inefficient work-up steps itself. In our research, we perform flow simulations using supercomputer facilities without other inspections after obtaining three dimensional vessel geometry model using the medical image. Through these modeling and simulation procedures, it can be expected to build the regular strategy for determination of the medical surgery plan. In addition, we summarize the technical elements for development of simulation techniques and prove that the proposed scheme can be applied to real clinical cases. First of all, patient’s medical imaging data are aligned to the coordinate system suitable for a 3D modeling according to electrocardiography. We then import a patient’s medical image which was converted to the dicom file format, and extract a vascular area through boundary detection from each medical image. After that, we perform a noise rejection, region growing, and partial editing. Upon completion of medical image processing, we generate the cardiovascular 3D mesh model through marching cube algorithm. The 3D models after modified are stored as STL, IGES (CAD file format) and they can be used in the multiple applications.