| Summary: | The risk of low back pain resulted from cyclic loadings is greater than that resulted from prolonged static postures. Disc degeneration results in degradation of disc solid structures and decrease of water contents, which is caused by activation of matrix digestive enzymes. The mechanical responses resulted from internal solid-fluid interactions of degenerative discs to cyclic loadings are not well studied yet. The fluid-solid interactions in discs can be evaluated by mathematical models, especially the poroelastic finite element models. We developed a robust disc poroelastic FE model to analyze the effect of degeneration on solid-fluid interactions within disc subjected to cyclic loadings at different loading frequencies. A backward analysis combined with in-vitro experiments were used to find the elastic modulus and hydraulic permeability of intact and enzyme-induced degenerated porcine discs. The results showed that the averaged peak-to-peak disc deformations during the in-vitro cyclic tests were well fitted with limited FE simulations and a quadratic response surface regression for both disc groups. The results showed that higher loading frequency increased the intradiscal pressure, decreased the total fluid loss, and slightly increased the maximum axial stress within solid matrix. Enzyme-induced degeneration decreased the intradiscal pressure and total fluid loss, and barely changed the maximum axial stress within solid matrix. The increase of intradiscal pressure and total fluid loss with loading frequency was less sensitive after the frequency elevated to 0.1 Hz for the enzyme-induced degenerated disc. Based on this study, it is found that enzyme-induced degeneration decreases energy attenuation capability of disc, but less change the strength of disc.
|
|---|
