Applications of Automatic Mesh Generation and Adaptive Methods in Computational Medicine

Important problems in Computational Medicine exist that can benefit from the implementation of adaptive mesh refinement techniques. Biological systems are so inherently complex that only efficient models running on state of the art hardware can begin to simulate reality. To tackle the complex geometries associated with medical applications we present a general purpose mesh generation scheme based upon the Delaunay tessellation algorithm and an iterative point generator. In addition, automatic, two- and three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement methods are presented that are derived from local and global estimates of the finite element error. Mesh generation and adaptive refinement techniques are utilized to obtain accurate approximations of bioelectric fields within anatomically correct models of the heart and human thorax. Specifically, we explore the simulation of cardiac defibrillation and the general forward and inverse problems in electrocardiography (ECG). Comparisons between uniform and adaptive refinement techniques are made to highlight the computational efficiency and accuracy of adaptive methods in the solution of field problems in computational medicine.