Marras Daniele, Palanca Marco, Cristofolini Luca
Department of Industrial Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum-Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Department of Oncology and Metabolism, INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Oct 29;9:756609. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.756609. eCollection 2021.
The mechanical consequences of osteophytes are not completely clear. We aimed to understand whether and how the presence of an osteophyte perturbs strain distribution in the neighboring bone. The scope of this study was to evaluate the mechanical behavior induced by the osteophytes using full-field surface strain analysis in different loading configurations. Eight thoracolumbar segments, containing a vertebra with an osteophyte and an adjacent vertebra without an osteophyte (control), were harvested from six human spines. The position and size of the osteophytes were evaluated using clinical computed tomography imaging. The spine segments were biomechanically tested in the elastic regime in different loading configurations while the strains over the frontal and lateral surface of vertebral bodies were measured using digital image correlation. The strain fields in the vertebrae with and without osteophytes were compared. The correlation between osteophyte size and strain alteration was explored. The strain fields measured in the vertebrae with osteophytes were different from the control ones. In pure compression, we observed a mild trend between the size of the osteophyte and the strain distribution ( = 0.32, = 0.15). A slightly stronger trend was found for bending ( = 0.44, = 0.075). This study suggests that the osteophytes visibly perturb the strain field in the nearby vertebral area. However, the effect on the surrounding bone is not consistent. Indeed, in some cases the osteophyte shielded the neighboring bone, and in other cases, the osteophyte increased the strains.
骨赘的力学影响尚不完全清楚。我们旨在了解骨赘的存在是否以及如何扰乱邻近骨骼的应变分布。本研究的范围是在不同加载配置下，使用全场表面应变分析来评估骨赘诱导的力学行为。从六具人类脊柱中获取了八个胸腰段，其中包含一个有骨赘的椎体和一个相邻的无骨赘椎体（对照）。使用临床计算机断层扫描成像评估骨赘的位置和大小。在不同加载配置下，对脊柱节段进行弹性状态下的生物力学测试，同时使用数字图像相关技术测量椎体前表面和侧表面的应变。比较有骨赘和无骨赘椎体的应变场。探讨骨赘大小与应变改变之间的相关性。有骨赘椎体中测量的应变场与对照椎体不同。在单纯压缩时，我们观察到骨赘大小与应变分布之间存在轻微趋势（r = 0.32，p = 0.15）。在弯曲时发现了稍强的趋势（r = 0.44，p = 0.075）。本研究表明，骨赘明显扰乱了附近椎体区域的应变场。然而，对周围骨骼的影响并不一致。实际上，在某些情况下，骨赘保护了邻近骨骼，而在其他情况下，骨赘增加了应变。
