Aplicações da computação gráfica à engenharia biomédica: ensino em neurociências e ferramenta de apoio ao estudo da deglutição

Abstract

This thesis applies computer graphics to two important fields of Biomedical Engineering. Firstly, in order to provide new software for interdisciplinary education, an interactive Virtual-based platform was developed, presenting a tridimensional visualization of the neuron and of its major microestructures. Such platform enables an overall view of the neural cell, including particular details in a microcellular level. Several issues regarding the tridimensional reconstruction of neuroanatomical strucutures based on photos taken from real-life tissues are discussed, leading to the implementation of a bidimensional atlas, that establishes connections between neuroanatomy and the clinical practice. Secondly, a system for the efficient and accurate estimation of the time intervals associated with swallow phases was developed, supposing videofluoroscopic images as inputs. The system performs pre-processing of such images by means of file conversions, followed by image analysis, that leads to the final estimation. A clinical experiment was carried out in order to validate the platform, yielding (allowing) a preliminar proposition for a normal pattern of swallow , which is based on the average-estimated swallow times. Results pointed out that the system may be considered, flexible, requiring simple hardware/software configurations, and also providing details on fractioning.