In vivo follow-up of muscle shape variation represents a challenge when evaluating muscle development due to disease or treatment. Recent developments in muscles reconstruction techniques indicate MRI as a clinical tool for the follow-up of the thigh muscles. The comparison of 3D muscles shape from two different sequences is not easy because there is no common frame. This study proposes an innovative method for the reconstruction of a reliable femoral frame based on the femoral head and both condyles centers. In order to robustify the definition of condylar spheres, an original method was developed to combine the estimation of diameters of both condyles from the lateral antero-posterior distance and the estimation of the spheres center from an optimization process. The influence of spacing between MR slices and of origin positions was studied. For all axes, the proposed method presented an angular error lower than 1° with spacing between slice of 10 mm and the optimal position of the origin was identified at 56 % of the distance between the femoral head center and the barycenter of both condyles. The high reliability of this method provides a robust frame for clinical follow-up based on MRI .
Keywords: Femoral frame; MRI; Muscle; Thigh.