background and objectives : examination of cartilage repair in animal work is dependent upon the thickness and radius of the induced impalement.  full-thickness defects with a radius of 3 mm have been commonly used in animal studies to evaluate new procedures designed to improve the quality of articular cartilage repair. the aim of the present study was to define the biomechanical characteristi...

The elasticity of the extracellular matrix profoundly affects biological responses of cells, but also their mechanical properties. Single cell mechanical properties are often measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM), but technical guidelines for AFM measurement of cells grown on soft substrates are not well established. In this study, the local and global elastic moduli of aortic valve interst...

BACKGROUND A prothrombotic state is associated with the presence and severity of organ damage in hypertensive patients. In these patients, evidence of subclinical carotid functional changes anticipates major cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of hemostatic markers with carotid artery stiffness in hypertension. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 116 untreated...

This study examined the concurrent age-related differences in muscle and tendon structure and properties. Achilles tendon morphology and mechanical properties and triceps surae muscle architecture were measured from 100 subjects [33 young (24 ± 2 yr) and 67 old (75 ± 3 yr)]. Motion analysis-assisted ultrasonography was used to determine tendon stiffness, Young's modulus, and hysteresis during i...

OBJECTIVES To determine (1) whether the shear modulus in upper trapezius muscle myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) reduces acutely after dry needling (DN), and (2) whether a change in posture from sitting to prone affects the shear modulus. DESIGN Ultrasound images were acquired in B mode with a linear transducer oriented in the transverse plane, followed by performance of shear-wave elastogra...

introduction: arterial stiffness is an important predictor of cardiovascular risk. several indices have been  introduced to estimate the arterial stiffness based on the changes in the brachial blood pressure. since the  substitution  of  the  blood  pressure  changes  in  the  central  arteries  such  as  carotid  with  the  blood  pressure  changes in the brachial results in error in the blood...

Nucleus replacement by a synthetic material is a recent trend for treatment of lower back pain. Hydrogel nucleus implants were prepared with variations in implant modulus, height, and diameter Human lumbar intervertebral discs (IVDs) were tested in compression for intact, denucleated, and implanted condition. Implantation of nucleus implants with different material and geometric parameters into...

Computer simulations showed that the elastic modulus of the cell layer relative to the elastic modulus of the extracellular layers predicted the effectiveness of different force-generating mechanisms for sea urchin primary invagination [L. A. Davidson, M. A. R. Koehl, R. Keller, and G. F. Oster (1995) Development 121, 2005-2018]. Here, we measured the composite elastic modulus of the cellular a...

BACKGROUND There is increasing recognition that pulmonary artery stiffness is an important determinant of right ventricular (RV) afterload in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). We used intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) to evaluate the mechanical properties of the elastic pulmonary arteries (PA) in subjects with PAH, and assessed the effects of PAH-specific therapy on indices of arterial stiff...

The aortic stiffness has been found to be a useful independent indicator of several cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and aneurysms. Existing methods to estimate the aortic stiffness are either invasive, e.g. catheterization, or yield average global measurements which could be inaccurate, e.g., tonometry. Alternatively, the aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) has been shown to be a reli...