Object. The authors have previously investigated the mechanical properties of the white and gray matter in the bovine cervical spinal cord, demonstrating that the gray matter is more rigid, although more fragile, than the white matter. In the present study they conducted additional tensile tests on the bovine cervical spinal cord by changing strain levels and strain rates applied to the white and gray matter.Methods. Based on their testing, the authors found the following: 1) Stress within the spinal cord relaxes over time. 2) Intracord stress is related to the strain rates or levels. The finite element method was used to compute the stress distribution within the spinal cord under three compressive loading conditions. Results from the computations showed a different stress distribution in the white and gray matter, where the distribution of stress varied with strain rate, compression volume, and the position of compression.Conclusions. These differences in mechanical properties between the white and gray matter constitute different mechanisms contributing to the development of tissue damage and clinical symptoms.
ABSTRACT:The effects of calcium stearate addition in molding of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were investigated by tensile testing, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. Four types of UHMWPE specimens with varying contents of calcium stearate (Ͻ5, 50, 100, and 1000 ppm) were used in this study. SEM observation revealed that calcium stearate added specimens have smoother and more homogeneous microstructures. After accelerated aging, subsurface oxidative degeneration was observed in all specimens; however, calcium stearate added specimens had less oxidative degeneration in comparison with specimens without additives. Specimens showed better mechanical properties with increasing content of calcium stearate. Though all specimens aggravated their mechanical properties due to oxidation after accelerated aging, the specimens of 100 ppm of calcium stearate showed better properties at 3.7 MPa larger yield strength and four times larger value of elongation at fracture than the specimens without additives. These results indicate that calcium stearate addition produces dense packing of UHM-WPE particles, which brings about stronger fusion among the particles and fewer structural defects, and results in better mechanical properties and better resistance to oxidative degeneration.
Although it is known that aging plays an important role in the incidence and progression of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), the underlying mechanism is unclear. Studies that used fresh bovine cervical spinal cord report the gray matter of the cervical spinal cord as being more rigid and fragile than the white matter. However, there are no reports regarding the association between aging an tensile and Finite Element Method (FEM). Therefore, FEM was used based on the data pertaining to the mechanical features of older bovine cervical spinal cord to explain the pathogenesis of CSM in elderly patients. Tensile tests were conducted for white and gray matter separately in young and old bovine cervical spinal cords, and compared with their respective mechanical features. Based on the data obtained, FEM analysis was further performed, which included static and dynamic factors to describe the internal stress distribution changes of the spinal cord. These results demonstrated that the mechanical strength of young bovine spinal cords is different from that of old bovine spinal cords. The gray matter of the older spinal cord was significantly softer and more resistant to rupture compared with that of younger spinal cords (P<0.05). Among the old, although the gray matter was more fragile than the white matter, it was similar to the white matter in terms of its rigidity (P<0.05). The in vitro data were subjected to three compression patterns. The FEM analysis demonstrated that the stress level rises higher in the old spinal cords in response to similar compression, when compared with young spinal cords. These results demonstrate that in analyzing the response of the spinal cord to compression, the age of patients is an important factor to be considered, in addition to the degree of compression, compression speed and parts of the spinal cord compression factor.
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