Neutron microtomography to investigate the bone-implant interface—comparison with histological analysis

Guillaume, Florian; Cann, Sophie Le; Tengattini, Alessandro; Törnquist, Elin; Falentin‐Daudre, Céline; Lomami, Hugues Albini; Petit, Yvan; Isaksson, Hanna; Haïat, Guillaume

doi:10.1088/1361-6560/abf603

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Hence, X-ray and neutron radiation generally lead to very different imaging contrast. Combining the two contrast methods for the same sample therefore allows a more comprehensive study than can be achieved using only one modality, as previously discussed by To ¨rnquist et al (2021) and Guillaume et al (2021) and now demonstrated in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Nonetheless, additional peaks of e.g. and bone have quite similar intensity, making them difficult to distinguish using absorption neutron imaging (Le Cann et al, 2017;To ¨rnquist, 2021). Indeed, we could not directly segment the water-filled voids from the phase-retrieved data.…”

Section: Bone Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The potential of neutron imaging to afford insights into liquid transport in bone is thus highly interesting, since neutron imaging enables contrast variation by deuteration. The field of neutron imaging of bone tissue is developing (To ¨rnquist et al, 2020;Guillaume et al, 2021), but methods providing improved signal-to-noise ratios and/or faster measurements remain in high demand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polychromatic neutron phase-contrast imaging of weakly absorbing samples enabled by phase retrieval

et al. 2023

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The use of a phase-retrieval technique for propagation-based phase-contrast neutron imaging with a polychromatic beam is demonstrated. This enables imaging of samples with low absorption contrast and/or improving the signal-to-noise ratio to facilitate e.g. time-resolved measurements. A metal sample, designed to be close to a phase pure object, and a bone sample with canals partially filled with D2O were used for demonstrating the technique. These samples were imaged with a polychromatic neutron beam followed by phase retrieval. For both samples the signal-to-noise ratios were significantly improved and, in the case of the bone sample, the phase retrieval allowed for separation of bone and D2O, which is important for example for in situ flow experiments. The use of deuteration contrast avoids the use of chemical contrast enhancement and makes neutron imaging an interesting complementary method to X-ray imaging of bone.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Bone Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polychromatic neutron phase-contrast imaging of weakly absorbing samples enabled by phase retrieval

et al. 2023

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“…The grey value interval for soft tissue was more distinct in NT, which indicates that the modality is promising for characterising the amount and distribution of soft tissue. This is supported by recent work that highlighted the potential of NT for looking at soft tissue (Guillaume et al 2021). Further investigation is needed to optimise the differentiation between bone and soft tissue in NT images.…”

Section: Quantification Of Bone Tissue and Soft Tissuementioning

confidence: 63%

Dual modality neutron and x-ray tomography for enhanced image analysis of the bone-metal interface

et al. 2021

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The bone tissue formed at the contact interface with metallic implants, particularly its 3D microstructure, plays a pivotal role for the structural integrity of implant fixation. X-ray tomography is the classical imaging technique used for accessing microstructural information from bone tissue. However, neutron tomography has shown promise for visualising the immediate bone-metal implant interface, something which is highly challenging with x-rays due to large differences in attenuation between metal and biological tissue causing image artefacts. To highlight and explore the complementary nature of neutron and x-ray tomography, proximal rat tibiae with titanium-based implants were imaged with both modalities. The two techniques were compared in terms of visualisation of different material phases and by comparing the properties of the individual images, such as the contrast-to-noise ratio. After superimposing the images using a dedicated image registration algorithm, the complementarity was further investigated via analysis of the dual modality histogram, joining the neutron and x-ray data. From these joint histograms, peaks with well-defined grey value intervals corresponding to the different material phases observed in the specimens were identified and compared. The results highlight differences in how neutrons and x-rays interact with biological tissues and metallic implants, as well as the benefits of combining both modalities. Future refinement of the joint histogram analysis could improve the segmentation of structures and tissues, and yield novel information about specimen-specific properties such as moisture content.

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“…Thus, studying the integration of metallic implants into bone using X-rays are challenging (Le Cann et al, 2019). Neutron tomography has recently been shown to be a promising alternative technique to X-ray tomography for the evaluation of bone tissue in close proximity to a metallic implant (Isaksson et al, 2017;Le Cann et al, 2017;Guillaume et al, 2021;Törnquist et al, 2021). Neutrons interact differently with matter compared to X-rays, which translates into an alternative contrast between materials, that is, not correlated with X-ray attenuation values (Bilheux et al, 2009;Roubin et al, 2019;Tengattini et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images

Törnquist

Cann

Tengattini

et al. 2022

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

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Neutron tomography has emerged as a promising imaging technique for specific applications in bone research. Neutrons have a strong interaction with hydrogen, which is abundant in biological tissues, and they can penetrate through dense materials such as metallic implants. However, in addition to long imaging times, two factors have led to challenges in running in situ mechanical characterization experiments on bone tissue using neutron tomography: 1) the high water content in specimens reduces the visibility of internal trabecular structures; 2) the mechanical properties of bone are dependent on the hydration state of the tissue, with drying being reported to cause increased stiffness and brittleness. This study investigates the possibility of improving image quality in terms of neutron transmission and contrast between material phases by drying and rehydrating in heavy water. Rat tibiae and trabecular bovine bone plugs were imaged with neutron tomography at different hydration states and mechanical testing of the bone plugs was carried out to assess effects of drying and rehydration on the mechanical properties of bone. From analysis of image histograms, it was found that drying reduced the contrast between bone and soft tissue, but the contrast was restored with rehydration. Contrast-to-noise ratios and line profiles revealed that the contrast between bone tissue and background was reduced with increasing rehydration duration but remained sufficient for identifying internal structures as long as no free liquid was present inside the specimen. The mechanical analysis indicated that the proposed fluid exchange protocol had no adverse effects on the mechanical properties.

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Neutron microtomography to investigate the bone-implant interface—comparison with histological analysis

Cited by 8 publications

References 64 publications

Polychromatic neutron phase-contrast imaging of weakly absorbing samples enabled by phase retrieval

Polychromatic neutron phase-contrast imaging of weakly absorbing samples enabled by phase retrieval

Dual modality neutron and x-ray tomography for enhanced image analysis of the bone-metal interface

The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images

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