Caractérisation de milieux poreux par étude de leur géométrie 3D : Application à l'os trabéculaire

Cette communication présente le développement d'un ensemble d'outils permettant de caractériser un milieu poreux tel que l'os trabéculaire. Ce travail est basé sur une nouvelle technique permettant de localiser et d'individualiser les arches du milieu poreux. Nous nous intéressons principalement à la mesure d'anisotropie en 3 dimensions et au calcul d'indices d'orientation et de courbure pour chaque travée. Les différentes techniques mises en place sont comparées sur 2 populations différentes composées d'échantillons osseux ostéoporotiques et coxarthriques. Nous montrons que seuls les indices de courbure des travées permettent de discriminer de manière significative les 2 populations étudiées

Relation entre la régularité de fractals 3D et celle de leurs projections 2D. Application à l'os trabéculaire

Deux des auteurs ont récemment établi que la régularité Rn d'un fractal continu isotrope de dimension n (nD) est égale à celle sa projection Rn-1 dans un espace (n-1)D diminuée de 0.5, ou plus clairement, Rn = Rn-1 - 0.5. Dans un premier temps, l'objectif de cette étude est d'expliquer brièvement ce résultat et de l'illustrer sur des volumes fractals synthétiques, continus et binaires, et leurs projections. Pour les fractals continus, les résultats sont proches de eux qu'il convient de trouver pour H faible. Pour H élevé, il apparaît des difficultés liées essentiellement aux défauts de la méthode de synthèse retenue. Pour les fractals binaires, l'écart de 0.5 qu'il est possible de trouver entre la régularité du volume et celle de sa projection n'est pas clairement établie. Dans un deuxième temps, nous avons expérimentalement étudié si cette relation est valide pour l'os trabéculaire et sa projection. Nous avons analysé 22 échantillons de tête de fémur imagés par micro-scanner. Nous trouvons une différence entre la régularité 2D et celle en 3D de 0.53 ± 0.046. Ceci indique que le la relation qui lie la régularité 3D d'un volume fractal à celle de sa projection s'applique pour cet objet binaire. Une simple mesure 2D permettrait alors de quantifier la structure trabéculaire 3D et pourrait se révéler d'une grande force pour le diagnostic précoce de l'ostéoporose

A new anisotropy index on trabecular bone radiographic images using the fast Fourier transform

BACKGROUND: The degree of anisotropy (DA) on radiographs is related to bone structure, we present a new index to assess DA. METHODS: In a region of interest from calcaneus radiographs, we applied a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). All the FFT spectra involve the horizontal and vertical components corresponding respectively to longitudinal and transversal trabeculae. By visual inspection, we measured the spreading angles: Dispersion Longitudinal Index (DLI) and Dispersion Transverse Index (DTI) and calculated DA = 180/(DLI+DTI). To test the reliability of DA assessment, we synthesized images simulating radiological projections of periodic structures with elements more or less disoriented. RESULTS: Firstly, we tested synthetic images which comprised a large variety of structures from highly anisotropic structure to the almost isotropic, DA was ranging from 1.3 to 3.8 respectively. The analysis of the FFT spectra was performed by two observers, the Coefficients of Variation were 1.5% and 3.1 % for intra-and inter-observer reproducibility, respectively. In 22 post-menopausal women with osteoporotic fracture cases and 44 age-matched controls, DA values were respectively 1.87 ± 0.15 versus 1.72 ± 0.18 (p = 0.001). From the ROC analysis, the Area Under Curve (AUC) were respectively 0.65, 0.62, 0.64, 0.77 for lumbar spine, femoral neck, total femoral BMD and DA. CONCLUSION: The highest DA values in fracture cases suggest that the structure is more anisotropic in osteoporosis due to preferential deletion of trabeculae in some directions

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Biomarkers of oxidative stress in critically ill patients: what should be measured, when and how?

Purpose of review This review is dedicated to updating the knowledge on oxidative stress in critically ill patients with an intense inflammatory reaction, and to link it with recent findings supporting the possible involvement of oxidative injuries in systems and organs that frequently fail in the critically ill. Recent findings Some direct or indirect biomarkers of oxidative stress have been validated in critically ill patients, and further support the major role of oxidative stress in these conditions. Summary The assessment of oxidative stress, defined as the association between an increased production of oxygen-derived species and an exhaustion of the stores of antioxidants, requires a multimodal approach. Oxidative damage itself can be much better estimated by quantifying the oxidative byproducts of the lipids and proteins associated with an evaluation of the remaining stores of the corresponding functional antioxidants, or the activity of antioxidant enzymes, than by global tests of the total oxidative damage or the total antioxidant stores. Recent clinical data confirm an important role of increased oxidative stress in the acute dysfunctions of the respiratory, renal and cerebral systems

Process Window for Seeded Growth of Arrays of Quasi-Spherical Substrate-Supported Au Nanoparticles

The controlled growth of surface-supported metal nanoparticles (NPs) is essential to a broad range of applications. To this end, we explore the seeded growth of highly ordered arrays of substrate-supported Au NPs through a fully orthogonal design of experiment (DoE) scheme applied to a reaction system consisting of HAuCl4, citrate, and hydrogen peroxide. Scanning electron microscopy in combination with digital image analysis (DIA) is used to quantitatively characterize the resultant NP populations in terms of both particle and array features. The effective optical properties of the NP arrays are additionally analyzed using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), allowing characteristics of the localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) of the arrays to be quantified. We study the dependence of the DIA- and SE-extracted features on the different reagent concentrations through modeling using multiple linear regression with backward elimination of independent variables. A process window is identified for which uniform arrays of quasi-spherical Au NPs are grown over large surface areas. Aside from reagent concentrations the system is highly sensitive to the hydrodynamic conditions during the deposition. This issue is likely caused by an Au precursor mass-transport limitation of the reduction reaction and it is found that agitation of the growth medium is best avoided to ensure a macroscopically even deposition. Parasitic homogeneous nucleation can also be a challenge and was separately studied in a full DoE scheme with equivalent growth media but without substrates, using optical tracking of the solutions over time. Conditions yielding quasi-spherical surface-supported NPs are found to also be affiliated with strong tendencies for parasitic homogeneous nucleation and thereby loss of Au precursor, but addition of polyvinyl alcohol can possibly help alleviate this issue

Subchondral Bone Micro-Architectural Changes In Osteoarthritis : a Synchrotron Micro-Computed Tomography Study

articleObjectivesWe evaluated the three-dimensional (3D) micro-architecture of subchondral trabecular (Tb) bone in osteoarthritis (OA). Due to high signal-to-noise ratio and high resolution, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) by synchrotron radiation is considered as the gold standard for bone micro-architecture imaging.DesignSubchondral bone were extracted from femoral heads in OA cases in areas without cartilage (OAc−; n=6) and in adjacent areas with cartilage (OAc+; n=6) and compared to eight subchondral bone cores from osteoporosis cases (OP). The voxel size of images was 10.13 μm. We measured the bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and morphological parameters: Tb thickness (TbTh), Tb spacing (TbSp), Tb number (TbN), and bone surface/bone volume (BS/BV). The degree of anisotropy (DA), the connectivity by the Euler number and the degree of mineralization (DM) were equally assessed.ResultsBV/TV and morphological parameters showed significant differences between OAc− and OP samples (P<0.01 except TbTh: P<0.05) and between OAc− and OAc+ (0.05<P<0.01) but no difference between OAc+ and OP except TbN (P<0.01). The connectivity was higher in OAc− comparatively to OAc+ and OP. The DA were significantly different between OA and OP cases (P<0.01) but not between OAc− and OAc+ specimens. The DMs (mean±SD) were 0.817±0.142 g/cm3, 0.873±0.161 g/cm3, 0.906±0.156 g/cm3 for OAc−, OAc+, OP (P<0.01), respectively.ConclusionSubchondral bone changes were mainly observed in advanced OA, when cartilage has been deleted and preserved in adjacent area. These data suggest that subchondral bone changes would be rather secondary to the cartilage deterioration than a primitive mechanism of OA. Nevertheless, longitudinal data could bring more accurate conclusion