The effect of scaling physiological cross-sectional area on musculoskeletal model predictions

Personalisation of model parameters is likely to improve biomechanical model predictions and could allow models to be used for subject- or patient-specific applications. This study evaluates the effect of personalising physiological cross-sectional areas (PCSA) in a large-scale musculoskeletal model of the upper extremity. Muscle volumes obtained from MRI were used to scale PCSAs of five subjects, for whom the maximum forces they could exert in six different directions on a handle held by the hand were also recorded. The effect of PCSA scaling was evaluated by calculating the lowest maximum muscle stress (σ