| Summary: | 博士 === 國立陽明大學 === 醫學工程研究所 === 92 === Besides biochemical and cellular changes, it has been widely suggested that mechanical factors play an important role in cartilage geometry and bone remolding. Few studies have stressed on the sensitivity of stress distribution of different mechanical properties of the articular cartilage and the underlying bone, especially in cartilage surface and bone/cartilage interface. A finite element model of hip joint was established to study the stress distributions associated with the changes of cartilage thickness, subchondral bone thickness and modulus, femoral head modulus, and femoral neck modulus. Our results demonstrated that the decrease of cartilage thickness has more significant effect than the increase of subchondral bone modulus or thickness on the shear stress levels in subchondral bone/cartilage interface. Therefore, the decrease of cartilage thickness acts as a major influence on the distribution of the contact stresses. For the effects of mechanical property changes of the underlying bone, the contact stress of cartilage is more sensitive to the subchondral plate than that to the femoral head or neck. Thus the subchondral plate has a higher effect on the contact stress in cartilage. Our results could also offer a mechanical explanation that the cartilage failure with OA is associated with higher proximal bone stiffness.
|
|---|
