An anatomically based mathematical model of the gastroesophageal junction.

In this study the construction of an initial three-dimensional anatomically based mathematical model of the esophagus is presented. The aim of this model is to provide a framework with which to examine the functional behavior of the esophagus and the lower esophageal sphincter during swallowing. Anatomical data from the Visible Human Project was used to provide the outlines of the regions of interest. A C/sup 1/ continuous cubic Hermite finite element mesh was then created using an iterative finite element linear fitting process to an RMS error less than 1 mm. Muscular fiber information was embedded within the model using data from published literature. There is a current lack of detailed microstructural data on the gastroesophageal junction. We describe the specialist measurement rig that we propose to use to obtain the microstructural information in our experimental studies.