Cardiovascular homeostasis is regulated by both physical and chemical factors. Vascular stiffness, a physical property of vessel, is crucial in maintaining the physiological function of vasculature. Vascular stiffness has been indicated to be correlated with hypertension, heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. It has been the most widely accepted clinical index for assessment of vascular function and dysfunction. This paper reviews the commonly used experimental and clinical techniques for evaluating vascular stiffness including direct detection of the Young's modulus and indirect detection method that is based on ultrasound technique and others. Principles of these methodologies, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, are also presented here. Researchers and clinical staff are encouraged to choose the most suitable methods for detecting vascular stiffness according to their purposes and objects, so as to effectively evaluate vascular function.
Humans ; Vascular Stiffness ; Elastic Modulus ; Hypertension/diagnosis* ; Cardiovascular Diseases/diagnosis* ; Heart Failure

Osteoporosis is one of the common metabolic diseases, which can easily lead to osteoporotic fractures. Accurate prediction of bone biomechanical properties is of great significance for the early prevention and diagnosis of osteoporosis. Bone mineral density measurement is currently used clinically as the gold standard for assessing bone strength and diagnosing osteoporosis, but studies have shown that bone mineral density can only explain 60% to 70% of bone strength changes, and trabecular bone microstructure is an important factor affecting bone strength. In order to establish the connection between trabecular bone microstructure and bone strength, this paper proposes a prediction method of trabecular bone modulus based on SE-DenseVoxNet. This method takes three-dimensional binary images of trabecular bone as input and predicts its elastic modulus in the z-axis direction. Experiments show that the error and bias between the predicted value of the method and the true value of the sample are small and have good consistency.
Biomechanical Phenomena ; Bone Density ; Cancellous Bone/diagnostic imaging* ; Elastic Modulus ; Humans ; Osteoporosis/diagnostic imaging*

To explore the value of conventional ultrasound combined with shear-wave elastography in the quantitative evaluation of sciatic nerve crush injury in rabbit models. Forty healthy male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into four groups (=10 in each group):three crush injury (CI) groups (2,4,and 8 weeks after crush) and control group (without injury). The thickness and stiffness of the crushed sciatic nerves and denervated triceps surae muscles were measured at different time points and compared with histopathologic parameters. Inter-reader variability was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients. Compared with the control group,the inner diameters of the sciatic nerves significantly increased in the 2-week CI group [(1.65±0.34) mm (0.97±0.15) mm,=0.00] but recovered to the nearly normal level in the 8-week CI group [(1.12±0.18) mm (0.97±0.15) mm,=0.06];however,compared with control group [(8.75±1.02)kPa],the elastic modulus of the nerves increased significantly in all the CI groups [2-week:(14.77±2.53) kPa;4-week:(19.12±3.46) kPa;and 8-week:(28.39±5.26) kPa;all =0.00];pathologically,massive hyperplasia of collagen fibers were found in the nerve tissues. The thickness of denervated triceps surae muscle decreased gradually,and the elastic modulus decreased 2 weeks after injury but increased gradually in the following 6 weeks;pathologically,massive hyperplasia of collagen fibers and adipocytes infiltration were visible,along with decreased muscle wet-weight ratio and muscle fiber cross-sectional area. The inter-reader agreements were good. Conventional ultrasound combined with shear-wave elastography is feasible for the quantitative evaluation of the morphological and mechanical properties of crushed nerves and denervated muscles.
Animals ; Crush Injuries ; diagnostic imaging ; Elastic Modulus ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Male ; Muscle, Skeletal ; innervation ; pathology ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Sciatic Nerve ; injuries ; Ultrasonography

The biophysical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) dictate tissue-specific cell behaviour. In the skeleton system, bone shows the potential to adapt its architecture and contexture to environmental rigidity via the bone remodelling process, which involves chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes and even peripheral bone marrow-derived stem/stromal cells (BMSCs). In the current study, we generated stiff (~1 014 ± 56) kPa, Young's modulus) and soft (~46 ± 11) kPa silicon-based elastomer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates by mixing curing agent into oligomeric base at 1:5 and 1:45 ratios, respectively, and investigated the influence of substrate stiffness on the cell behaviours by characterizing cell spreading area, cell cytoskeleton and cell adhesion capacity. The results showed that the cell spreading areas of chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes and BMSCs were all reduced in the soft substrate relative to those in the stiff substrate. F-actin staining confirmed that the cytoskeleton was also changed in the soft group compared to that in the stiff group. Vinculin in focal adhesion plaques was significantly decreased in response to soft substrate compared to stiff substrate. This study establishes the potential correlation between microenvironmental mechanics and the skeletal system, and the results regarding changes in cell spreading area, cytoskeleton and cell adhesion further indicate the important role of biomechanics in the cell-matrix interaction.
Actins ; Cell Adhesion ; Elastic Modulus ; Focal Adhesions ; physiology ; Humans ; Vinculin ; analysis ; metabolism

In the present study, the performance of the liquid nitrogen frozen and thinned bovine pericardium was studied and compared with the porcine pericardium. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the bovine pericardium were observed and tested by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and tensile test respectively. In all conditions, porcine pericardium was selected as a control group. The results showed that there was little difference in the performance of bovine pericardium after being frozen by liquid nitrogen. The secant modulus and ultimate strength of the thinned bovine pericardium were similar to those of porcine pericardium, however, the elastic modulus was a little higher than porcine pericardium. The study suggested that the performance of the thinned bovine pericardium was similar to those of porcine pericardium. It was easy for the thinned bovine pericardium to obtain a relatively ideal thickness and expected performance, therefore, the thinned bovine pericardium can be used as the materials of transcatheter aortic valve leaflets.
Animals ; Aortic Valve ; Bioprosthesis ; Cattle ; Elastic Modulus ; Freezing ; Heart Valve Prosthesis ; Nitrogen ; Pericardium ; physiology ; Swine

The mechanical properties of the aorta tissue is not only important for maintaining the cardiovascular health, but also is closely related to the development of cardiovascular diseases. There are obvious differences between the ventral and dorsal tissues of the descending aorta. However, the cause of the difference is still unclear. In this study, a biaxial tensile approach was used to determine the parameters of porcine descending aorta by analyzing the stress-strain curves. The strain energy functions Gasser-Ogden-Holzapfel was adopted to characterize the orthotropic parameters of mechanical properties. Elastic Van Gieson (EVG) and Sirius red stain were used to observe the microarchitecture of elastic and collagen fibers, respectively. Our results showed that the tissue of descending aorta had more orthotropic and higher elastic modulus in the dorsal region compared to the ventral region in the circumferential direction. No significant difference was found in hyperelastic constitutive parameters between the dorsal and ventral regions, but the angle of collagen fiber was smaller than 0.785 rad (45°) in both dorsal and ventral regions. The arrangement of fiber was inclined to be circumferential. EVG and Sirius red stain showed that in outer-middle membrane of the descending aorta, the density of elastic fibrous layer of the ventral region was higher than that of the dorsal region; the amount of collagen fibers in dorsal region was more than that of the ventral region. The results suggested that the difference of mechanical properties between the dorsal and ventral tissues in the descending aorta was related to the microstructure of the outer membrane of the aorta. In the relatively small strain range, the difference in mechanical properties between the ventral and dorsal tissues of the descending aorta can be ignored; when the strain is higher, it needs to be treated differently. The results of this study provide data for the etiology of arterial disease (such as arterial dissection) and the design of artificial blood vessel.
Animals ; Aorta, Thoracic ; physiology ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Collagen ; Elastic Modulus ; Stress, Mechanical ; Swine

OBJECTIVE: To compare the elasticity of the supraspinatus tendon (SST) and infraspinatus tendon (IST) in patients with idiopathic adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder (ACS) with those in the control groups and to evaluate the relationship between age and tendon elasticity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Institutional Review Board approved this prospective, case-control study, which was conducted between November 2017 and March 2018, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Control groups comprised healthy individuals or those with asymptomatic contralateral shoulders. Twenty-five shoulders in 20 participants in the ACS group (14 women; 53.5 ± 7.9 years) and 24 shoulders in 18 participants in the control group (6 women; 52.6 ± 10.5 years) were included. Elastography was performed in the oblique coronal plane at the neutral shoulder position. Mean/maximum/minimum velocity and stiffness from the shear-wave ultrasound elastography (SWE) and strain ratio (subcutaneous fat/target-tendon) from the strain ultrasound elastography (SE) of the SST and IST were evaluated. Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and Spearman correlation. RESULTS: Both velocity and stiffness in SWE were higher, and the strain ratio in SE was lower in participants with symptomatic shoulders than in those with normal shoulders (p < 0.001). SST- and IST-mean velocity, mean stiffness, and strain ratios showed excellent area under the ROC curve (> 0.970). The elastic modulus was little correlated with age (ρ = −0.340–0.239). CONCLUSION: SWE and SE indicated that SST and IST were stiffer in patients with ACS than in those with normal shoulders regardless of aging.
Adhesives ; Aging ; Bursitis ; Case-Control Studies ; Elastic Modulus ; Elasticity ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Female ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Prospective Studies ; ROC Curve ; Rotator Cuff ; Shoulder ; Tendons ; Ultrasonography

BACKGROUND: Osteolytic metastasis is a common destructive form of metastasis, in which there is an increased bone resorption but impaired bone formation. It is hypothesized that the changed mechanical properties of tumor affected bone cells could inhibit its mechanosensing, thus contributing to differences in bone remodeling. METHODS: Here, atomic force microscopy indentation on primary bone cells exposed to 50% conditioned medium from Walker 256 (W) carcinoma cell line or its adaptive tumor (T) cells was carried out. Nitric oxide levels of bone cells were monitored in response to low-magnitude, high-frequency (LMHF) vibrations. RESULTS: A stronger sustained inhibitive effect on bone cell viability and differentiation by T cells as compared to that of its cell line was demonstrated. This could be attributed to the higher levels of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in the T-conditioned medium as compared to W-conditioned medium. Bone cell elastic moduli in W and T-groups were found to decrease significantly by 61.0% and 69.6%, respectively compared to control and corresponded to filamentous actin changes. Nitric oxide responses were significantly inhibited in T-conditioned group but not in W-conditioned group. CONCLUSIONS: It implied that a change in cell mechanical properties is not sufficient as an indicator of change in mechanosensing ability. Moreover, inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt downstream signaling pathway of TGF-β1 alleviated the inhibition effects on mechanosensing in T-conditioned cells, further suggesting that growth factors such as TGF-β could be good therapeutic targets for osteoblast treatment.
Actins ; Bone Neoplasms ; Bone Remodeling ; Bone Resorption ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival ; Culture Media, Conditioned ; Elastic Modulus ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Microscopy, Atomic Force ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nitric Oxide ; Osteoblasts ; Osteogenesis ; Sensitivity Training Groups ; T-Lymphocytes ; Vibration ; Walkers

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of shear wave ultrasound elastography for differentiating superficial benign soft tissue masses through a comparison of their shear moduli. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 48 masses from 46 patients from February 2014 to May 2016. Surgical excision, fine-needle aspiration, and clinical findings were used for the differential diagnosis. The ultrasonographic examinations were conducted by a single musculoskeletal radiologist, and the ultrasonographic findings were reviewed by two other radiologists who were blinded to the final diagnosis. Conventional ultrasonographic features and the median shear modulus were evaluated. We compared the median shear moduli of epidermoid cysts, ganglion cysts, and lipomatous tumors using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Additionally, the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare two distinct groups. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in the median shear moduli of epidermoid cysts, ganglion cysts, and lipomatous tumors (23.7, 5.8, and 9.2 kPa, respectively; P=0.019). Epidermoid cysts showed a greater median shear modulus than ganglion cysts (P=0.014) and lipomatous tumors (P=0.049). CONCLUSION: Shear wave elastography may contribute to the differential diagnosis of superficial benign soft tissue masses through a direct quantitative analysis.
Biopsy, Fine-Needle ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Elastic Modulus ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques* ; Epidermal Cyst ; Ganglion Cysts ; Humans ; Lipoma ; Retrospective Studies ; Shear Strength ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: Shear bond strength (SBS) test is the most commonly used method for evaluating resin bond strength of zirconia, but SBS results vary among different studies even when evaluating the same bonding strategy. The purpose of this study was to promote standardization of the SBS test in evaluating zirconia ceramic bonding and to investigate factors that may affect the SBS value of a zirconia/resin cement/composite resin bonding specimen.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The zirconia/resin cement/composite resin bonding specimens were used to simulate loading with a shear force by the three-dimensional finite element (3D FE) modeling, in which stress distribution under uniform/non-uniform load, and different resin cement thickness and different elastic modulus of resin composite were analyzed. In vitro SBS test was also performed to validate the results of 3D FE analysis.RESULTS: The loading flat width was an important affecting factor. 3D FE analysis also showed that differences in resin cement layer thickness and resin composite would lead to the variations of stress accumulation area. The SBS test result showed that the load for preparing a SBS specimen is negatively correlated with the resin cement thickness and positively correlated with SBS values.CONCLUSION: When preparing a SBS specimen for evaluating bond performance, the load flat width, the load applied during cementation, and the different composite resins used affect the SBS results and therefore should be standardized.
Cementation ; Ceramics ; Composite Resins ; Elastic Modulus ; In Vitro Techniques ; Methods ; Resin Cements