Validation of a new 2-D technique for radiographic wear measurement of cemented, highly cross-linked polyethylene acetabular cups

Does Pelvic Orientation Influence Wear Measurement of the Acetabular Cup in Total Hip Arthroplasty—An Experimental Study

Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA) is the gold standard to detect in vivo material wear of the bearing couples in hip arthroplasty. Some surgical planning tools offer the opportunity to detect wear by using standard a.p. radiographs (2Dwear), whilst RSA (3Dwear) needs a special radiological setup. The aims of this study are to prove the interchangeable applicability of a 2Dwear approach next to RSA and to assess the influence of different pelvic positions on measurement outcomes. An implant-bone model was used to mimic three different wear scenarios in seven pelvic-femur alignment positions. RSA and a.p. radiographs of the reference and a follow-up (simulated wear) pose were acquired. Accuracy and precision were worse for the 2Dwear approach (0.206 mm; 0.159 mm) in comparison to the 3Dwear approach (0.043 mm; 0.017 mm). Changing the pelvic position significantly influenced the 2Dwear results (4 of 7, p < 0.05), whilst 3Dwear results showed almost no change. The 3Dwear is superior to the 2Dwear approach, as it is less susceptible to changes in pelvic position. However, the results suggest that a 2Dwear approach may be an alternative method if the wear present is in the range of 100–500 µm and a.p. radiographs are available with the pelvis projected in a neutral position.

Numerical and Experimental Performance Analysis of the Chirped Fiber Bragg Grating Based Abrasion Sensor for the Maintenance Applications in the Industry 4.0

In this article, an extensive analysis of the performance of the fiber optics-based abrasion sensor that utilizes chirped fiber Bragg grating, is presented. For the response investigation during abrasion, a numerical analysis, based on the transfer matrix method and coupled mode theory, is provided. The influence of the SLED source spectral position in respect to the spectral position of the chirped fiber Bragg grating is evaluated together with the influence of the changes of the ambient temperature of the sensor. Experimental verification of the sensor's performance is provided, together with the proposition of the packaging of the sensor. In the article, a simple, cost-effective and multiplexation-ready concept of the wear or abrasion sensor system is presented and discussed.

Correction of radiographic measurements of acetabular cup wear for variations in pelvis orientation

Radiographic measurement of two-dimensional acetabular cup wear is usually carried out on a series of follow-up radiographs of the patient's pelvis. Since the orientation of the pelvis might not be consistent at every X-ray examination, the resulting change in view of the wear plane introduces error into the linear wear measurement. This effect is amplified on some designs of cup in which the centre of the socket is several millimetres below the centre of the cup or circular wire marker. This study describes the formulation of a mathematical method to correct radiographic wear measurements for changes in pelvis orientation. A mathematical simulation of changes in cup orientation and wear vectors caused by pelvic tilt was used to confirm that the formulae corrected the wear exactly if the radiographic plane of the reference radiograph was parallel to the true plane of wear. An error analysis showed that even when the true wear plane was not parallel to the reference radiographic plane, the formulae could still provide a useful correction. A published correction formula was found to be ineffective.