Projects
Osteoarthritis of the thumb joint: occurrence mechanism and understanding via medical imaging and computer modeling techniques KU Leuven
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a very common degenerative joint disease that affects the integrity of the articular cartilage and which most important symptoms are pain and loss of mobility. This chronic disorder affects primarily the middle-aged and elderly population with a fast increasing prevalence with aging. Mechanical factors play an important role in the development of OA, but how joint loading, intra-articular contact patterns and joint ...
Predictive simulations to explore gait control in children with cerebral palsy and provide guidance in the clinical decision making process. KU Leuven
Physics-based simulations of human movement have the potential to predict the functional outcome of treatments, thereby allowing clinicians to personalize and optimize clinical decision-making. These predictive simulations would be particularly valuable for treatments with modest and unpredictable outcomes, such as orthopedic surgeries aiming to improve walking abilities of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Yet computational and modeling ...
The Impact of Parameter Uncertainty on Patient-Specific Musculoskeletal Modelling for Ligament-Balanced TKA KU Leuven
A common cause of knee pain is arthritis, where Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent with an estimated lifetime risk for symptomatic OA of 46.8% in women and 39.8% in men. The goal of a total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is to relieve pain and restore function to a knee with end stage OA. The failures that result in revision are in 47.4% of the cases due to joint stiffness, joint instability or implant loosening. The failure modes that lead ...
Cone-beam Computed Tomography is a Fast and Promising Technique for Microstructural Imaging in Clinical Practice KU Leuven
Due to the rising life expectancy, bone and joint diseases (e.g., osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis) have become an important socioeconomic burden. For these diseases, the importance of assessing the bone’s microarchitecture make-up in clinical practice has been emphasized in basic science. However, it remains challenging to assess it in clinical practice.
High-resolution in vivo imaging became possible with the ...
Biomechanical testing and load transfer across the bone-cartilage interface (Ex vivo) KU Leuven
Articular joints are complex structures where soft cartilage is connected to hard mineralized bone tissue. Both tissues have unique adaptation mechanisms to deal with the biomechanical challenge of joining tissues with vastly dissimilar properties. However, the mechanisms of load transfer between cartilage and bone are not well understood and relatively little is known about the mechanical characteristics of the bone-cartilage interaction. ...
Development of a functional outcome prediction strategy for the design of orthoses. KU Leuven
Approximately 200 million European citizens suffer from a disorder to the ankle or foot, which is accompanied by a decreased functionality of and/or pain in the foot, ankle joint of knee joint. Due to the aging of the population the number of people suffering this disorder increases. Mostly ankle foot ortheses (AFO) are described in order to recover the gait function of the patients. AFOs are external aids to correct the movement of the foot. ...
Preoperative Planning of Shoulder Arthroplasty Based on Patient-Specific Computer Models KU Leuven
Shoulder arthroplasty is the third most common joint replacement and is indicated for patients with severe glenohumeral osteoarthritis or cuff tear arthropathy. Anatomic or total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) and reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) have a complication rate of respectively 10 and 16%. In TSA, the joint anatomy is restored, which is challenging due to the unknown shape of the native unaffected glenoid. In RSA, the joint anatomy ...
Stochastic optimal control simulations of human walking for computer-aided exoskeleton design KU Leuven
Predictive simulations allow for the generation of novel movements based on neuro-musculoskeletal models. Hence, predictive simulations can be used to study the effect of changes in the musculoskeletal system or motor control strategy (e.g. due to aging, pathology or treatment) on movement patterns. Human movement is robust against internal (sensorimotor noise) and external perturbations. Yet, simulation frameworks that describe this ...
Computer Aided Tools for the Design and Planning of Personalized Shoulder Arthroplasty KU Leuven
Shoulder arthroplasty is the third most common joint replacement procedure, after knee and hip arthroplasty, and currently the most rapidly growing one in the orthopaedic field. The main surgical options include total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA), in which the normal joint anatomy is restored, and, for patients with a completely torn rotator cuff, reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA), in which the ball and the socket of the glenohumeral joint ...