Whole disc organ culture is needed for preclinical testing of biological repair of the degenerate intervertebral disc. Such organ culture is hampered by two major limitations: first obtaining adequate nutrition though the calcified cartilage endplates adjacent to the vertebral bone, and second by loss of tissue integrity if the endplates are removed from the discs. In this work we utilize a recently described technique for whole disc isolation that overcomes these problems, by removal of vertebral bone and the adjacent calcified portion of the endplate, and the construction of a bioreactor that permits long-term viability of these discs in loaded organ culture. The bioreactor consists of a culture chamber in which the disc can be dynamically loaded in a uniform manner. The culture chamber is large enough to accommodate discs up to 60 mm in diameter, and so is amendable to study both bovine and human discs. The discs are loaded in the culture chamber by upper and lower platens, which conform to the shape of the remaining cartilaginous endplate and permit fluid flow across its surface. The bioreactor is able to load the disc under a variety of conditions ranging from static to dynamic and from physiological to pathological, and monitor induced changes in disc height. To date, bovine caudal discs have been maintained viable in the bioreactor for up to 4 weeks without any appreciable loss of disc height under physiological cyclic load and, in principle, could be maintained in such a manner for several months. Such long-term organ culture is essential for studying biological repair of the disc.

This article investigates metrics to assess and compensate for the degradation of the adhesive layer of surface-bonded piezoceramic transducers for structural health-monitoring applications. Capacitance, resonance frequency, and modal damping parameters are derived from admittance curves using a lumped parameter model to monitor the degradation of the transducer adhesive layer. A pitch-catch configuration is then used to discriminate the effect of bonding degradation on actuation and sensing. It is shown that below the first mechanical resonance frequency of the piezoceramic transducers, the degradation causes a decrease in the amplitude of the transmitted and received signals, while above resonance, in addition to a decrease in the amplitude of the transmitted and received signals, a linear phase shift is observed. A signal-correction factor is proposed to adjust signals based on adhesive degradation evaluated using the measured modal damping. The benefits of the signal-correction factor are demonstrated in the frequency domain for both the A 0 and S 0 modes.

The compensation of the degradation of the bonding layer of piezoceramics used in structural health monitoring is addressed in this article. A simple admittance model is first used to measure and extract the variation of admittance parameters using the same acquisition chain which is used by the structural health monitoring system for damage monitoring. More precisely, the method uses measurable changes in physical transducer modal damping at frequencies around piezoceramic resonance to estimate the extent of degradation. Then, a finite element model is used to obtain calibration curves linking the variations in transducer modal damping to amplitude and phase of the ultrasonic signals generated or measured by the piezoceramics. Such calibration curves are obtained by simulating with the FEM the effect of varying the bonding layer coverage area and Young's modulus on (a) admittance and (b) amplitude and phase of the ultrasonic signals. From this, a signal correction factor is developed for the dominant bonding layer coverage area degradation failure mode to compensate for the changes in amplitude and phase of guided waves generated and measured by degraded piezoceramic transducers. The measured modal damping determines the amount of bonding layer degradation from the simulated modal damping calibration curves and then the quantified bonding layer degradation amount selects the amplitude and phase correction to be applied to measured signals from the calibration curves. The benefits of the signal correction factor are demonstrated below piezoceramic resonance to improve damage imaging and localization using the Embedded Ultrasonic Structural Radar algorithm (delay and sum method) when a single transducer in a sparse array of transducers fixed to an aluminum plate is damaged due to the close proximity of drop-weight impacts. Up to a certain damage extent, the signal correction factor could allow an extension of the service life of the structural health monitoring system.

Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate if axial T1ρ MR images had similar accuracy as established sagittal T1ρ MRI for the assessment of proteoglycan concentration and content in intervertebral degenerated discs (IDDs). Methods T1ρ and T2-weighted MR images of 12 intervertebral discs (IVDs) from 3 harvested human lumbar spines (levels L1–L2 to L5–S1) were grouped across their degenerative grade (Pfirrmann scores) and analyzed using a 3T MRI scanner in the axial and sagittal views. Post-processing of axial T1ρ-weighted images was performed using a Wiener filter. Median axial T1ρ values for traced regions of interest (ROIs) on color maps were compared against ROIs in the corresponding location in the sagittal plane of each disc. Assessment of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) content was also performed. Results Comparison of post Wiener filtered mid-axial T1ρ values in the NP with corresponding mid-sagittal values revealed no statistical difference (P > 0.05). Higher axial T1ρ and biochemically measured GAGs content corresponded to a lower Pfirrmann grading of the IVDs. A strong association between the T1ρ values and the GAG contents was observed (r = 0.85, P = 0.0002). Conclusions The axial T1ρ methodology was validated against sagittal T1ρ providing an augmented spatial representation of IVD and can facilitate localization of focal degeneration within IVDs. T1ρ values provided a better granularity assessment of degenerative disc disease as it correlated with proteoglycan concentration. Thus, Wiener filtering is an effective tool for removing noise from T1ρ-weighted axial MR images.