J. Hyttinen, R. M. Arthur, P. Kauppinen, J. Malmivuo, " Parallel Processing Approach for Finite Difference Modelling of Human Thorax as a Volume Conductor," Proceedings of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference 1997, 1998. 

Abstract

The finite difference element method (FDM) provides a straightforward and easy way to construct and solve accurate, patient-tailored models of the human thorax as a volume conductor. However, the usability of the method is decreased by computationally slow iterative method to solve the source-field problem. In this work we present a method to implement FDM thorax model into a MASPAR massively parallel array processor.  FDM elements are based on a rectangular grid that is used throughout the volume. This grid was mapped directly into the parallel processing array in such a way that each processor acts as a computational element. The stack of elements at a particular FDM grid position in all slices were loaded into the memory of a processor at the same grid point in the processor array. Thus the iterative process was mapped from the single-element mode of the conventional computers into a single-slice mode. Each slice can have 16000 elements, which are solved simultaneously, decreasing the calculation time accordingly.  The array processor will be used to obtain solutions for a very accurate thorax model featuring the anatomy of the Visible Human Man.