Lorkowski Jacek, Mrzyglod Miroslaw W, Pokorski Mieczyslaw
Faculty of Physics and Engineering Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK.
Department of Management and Accounting, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, 02-554 Warsaw, Poland.
J Clin Med. 2024 Sep 13;13(18):5453. doi: 10.3390/jcm13185453.
Osteoarthritis is a feature of the aging process. Here, we adopted in silico 2D finite element modeling (FEM) for the simulation of diseased ankle joints. We delved into the influence of body weight intensity on the stress distribution caused by subchondral cysts imitating degenerative age-related arthritic changes. FEM was performed using virtually generated pictorial schemes of the ankle joint skeletal contour. It included a constellation of scenarios with solitary or multiple cysts, or the lack thereof, located centrally, peripherally, or both in the talus and tibia at increased fixed levels of body weight. The modeling showed that the highest stress was in the presence of a solitary central cyst in the talus and two centrally located cysts in the talus and the tibia, with the averaged values of 1.81 ± 0.52 MPa and 1.92 ± 0.55 MPa, respectively; there was a significant increase compared with the 1.24 ± 0.35 MPa in the control condition without cysts. An increase in body weight consistently increased the strain on the ankle joint. In contrast, peripherally located cysts failed to affect the stress distribution significantly. We conclude that subchondral central cysts substantially enhance the stress exerted on the ankle joint and its vicinity with body weight dependence. FEM's ability to predict the location and magnitude of subchondral stress changes when confirmed in clinical trials might help to optimize the management of age-related degenerative joint changes.
骨关节炎是衰老过程的一个特征。在此，我们采用计算机二维有限元建模（FEM）来模拟患病的踝关节。我们深入研究了体重强度对由模仿与年龄相关的退行性关节炎变化的软骨下囊肿所引起的应力分布的影响。使用虚拟生成的踝关节骨骼轮廓图片方案进行有限元建模。它包括一系列情景，即在固定体重增加水平下，距骨和胫骨中存在单个或多个囊肿、或不存在囊肿，囊肿位于中央、周边或两者皆有。建模显示，最高应力出现在距骨中有一个中央孤立囊肿以及距骨和胫骨中有两个中央囊肿的情况，其平均值分别为1.81±0.52兆帕和1.92±0.55兆帕；与无囊肿的对照条件下的1.24±0.35兆帕相比有显著增加。体重增加持续增加踝关节上的应变。相比之下，周边位置的囊肿未能显著影响应力分布。我们得出结论，软骨下中央囊肿在体重依赖的情况下会显著增强施加在踝关节及其附近的应力。当在临床试验中得到证实时，有限元建模预测软骨下应力变化的位置和大小的能力可能有助于优化对与年龄相关的退行性关节变化的管理。
