Abstract #3361

Asmuth J, Gee J, Andarawis N, Tustison N, Avants B, Sarver J, Soslowsky L

A non-invasive method to compute the strain field of the supraspinatus tendon under loading is presented. MRI slices of the loaded and unloaded tendon are registered to find a deformation field from which the strain is derived. Tendon MRI images lack contrast and texture and are challenging to register. To guarantee well-behaved results, user-traced splines mark out tendon contours and steer a registration algorithm that models the tendon as a continuum. The strain results from this method are consistent with the strain predicted by finite element model analysis.