Dynamic Response of Femoral Cartilage in Knees With Unicompartmental Osteoarthritis

 

A. Vidal–Lesso*¹, E. Ledesma–Orozco², R. Lesso–Arroyo³, R. Rodríguez–Castro⁴

 

^1,2 Department of Mechanical Engineering. Universidad de Guanajuato, Campus Irapuato–Salamanca. Salamanca–Valle de Santiago Highway, Km 3.5+1.8. Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico. *E–mail: avidal@itc.mx

^3,4 Department of Mechatronic Engineering. Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya. Tecnologico Avenue and Antonio Garcia Cubas Street, 38010, Celaya, Gto, Mexico.

 

ABSTRACT

The objective of the present work was to determine the dynamic indentation response, stiffness and relaxation curves for the shear and the bulk modulus of femoral knee cartilage with no visual damage in cases under unicompartmental osteoarthritis.

A cyclic displacement of 0.5 mm in axial direction was applied with a 3 mm plane–ended cylindrical indenter at specific points in the femoral knee cartilage specimens of seven patients with unicompartmental osteoarthritis (UOA). The indentation force over time was recorded and next the maximum stiffness in all cycles was obtained and compared. Also, the relaxation curves for the shear and the bulk modulus of cartilage were obtained in this work.

A decrease in the maximum indentation force was observed comparing between indentation cycles; it was of 6.75 ± 0.71% from cycle 1 to cycle 2 and 4.70 ± 0.31% for cycle 2 to cycle 3. Stiffness values changed with a mean of 3.35 ± 0.39% from cycle 1 to cycle 2 and 1.40 ± 0.71% from cycle 2 to cycle 3. Moreover, relaxation curves for the shear modulus and the bulk modulus showed the nonlinear behavior of articular cartilage with UOA.

Our results showed that cartilage specimens with no visual damage in UOA preserve a nonlinear viscoelastic behavior and its stiffness increases through the loading cycles. Our work provides experimental values for generating a more realistic cartilage behavior than those currently used in computer cartilage models for the study of UOA.

Keywords: Osteoarthritis, cartilage, dynamic response, biomechanics.

 

RESUMEN

El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar la respuesta dinámica de indentación, la rigidez y las curvas de relajación para módulo cortante y volumétrico de cartílago femoral de rodilla con daño no visual en casos con osteoartritis unicompartmental.

Se aplicó un desplazamiento cíclico de 0.5 mm en dirección axial con un indentador cilíndrico plano de 3 mm en puntos específicos de los especímenes de cartílago femoral de rodilla de siete pacientes con osteoartritis unicompartimental (OAU). La fuerza de indentación a través del tiempo fue registrada, obteniéndose y comparándose la máxima rigidez en todos los ciclos. Además, en este trabajo se obtuvieron las curvas de relajación para el módulo cortante y volumétrico de cartílago.

Se observó una disminución en la fuerza de indentación máxima comparando entre los ciclos de indentación; ésta fue 6.75 ± 0.71% del ciclo 1 al 2, y 4.70 ± 0.31% del ciclo 2 al 3. Los valores de rigidez cambiaron 3.35 ± 0.39% entre el ciclo 1 y 2, y 1.40 ± 0.71% entre el ciclo 2 y 3. Además, las curvas de relajación para el módulo cortante y volumétrico mostraron el comportamiento no lineal del cartílago articular con OAU.

Los resultados mostraron que los especímenes de cartílago con daño no visual en OAU preservan un comportamiento viscoelástico no lineal y su rigidez se incrementa a través de los ciclos de carga. Este trabajo provee valores experimentales para generar un comportamiento de cartílago más real que el utilizado actualmente en modelos computacionales de cartílago para el estudio de OAU.

 

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