Study with speckle interferometry of bone-implant interface conditions

Simões1, J. A. O., Monteiro2, J., Vaz2, M. A., Taylor3, M., Blatcher4, S.

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Aveiro
2 Laboratory of Optics and Experimental Mechanics, INEGI, University of Porto, Portugal
3 Department of Orthopaedics, University of Lund, Sweden
4 IRC in Biomedical Materials, Queen Mary and Westfield College, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT: The measurement of deformation within cancellous bone is extremely difficult using
conventional contact measurement techniques due to the materials highly porous structure and poor
mechanical properties. Simões et al. (1997) have developed and proven the adaptability of an experimental
technique using speckle interferometry to measure displacement patterns on a cancellous bone substitute
(commercial polyurethane HEREX® C 70). The aim of this paper is to study the influence of interface
conditions (bonded versus press-fit implants) using speckle interferometry. Bovine cancellous bone was used
in the experiments with a metal tapered rod simulating the implant, which was inserted centrally in the
cancellous bone. The model was sectioned longitudinally to expose the bone-implant interface and the
displacement distributions of bonded and press-fit implants were assessed.

1 - INTRODUCTION the initial mechanical environment. Therefore,

Micromotion, migration and subsequent aseptic
loosening of proximal femoral prostheses is the
most common form of failure of hip replacements.
The resulting revision operation is distressing for
the patient, technically difficult for the surgeon and
costly to the health service. The mechanism by
which aseptic loosening occurs is still not clearly
established. Many new designs of prostheses are
introduced into the orthopaedic market, with little
or no pre-clinical test results.
Conventional, clinically based, techniques of
implant evaluation can take up to 10 years to
identify a poorly performing prosthetic design. In
an increasingly competitive market, such
information is usually redundant by the time it is
published. Recently, migration studies of the
progressive motion of the implant within the bone,
have shown that subsidence, or the vertical
component of migration, can be used to predict the
incidence of late aseptic loosening as early as two
years post operatively (Freeman and Plante-
Bordeneuve, 1994; Kärrholm et al., 1994). This
suggests that the mechanism of migration, and
hence late aseptic loosening, is a mechanical, rather
than a biological process, or is at least triggered by
providing a suitable predictor can be found it should
be possible to predict the early migration using in
vitro experimental or analytical techniques.
The failure of the soft spongy bone, cancellous
bone, supporting an implant may be one of the
contributing factors to migration and loosening. The
cancellous bone stress distribution of the intact and
implanted femur has been studied using the finite
element analysis (FEA) and a number of implant
configurations have been analysed (Taylor et al.,
1995a, 1995b). In comparison to clinical migration
and survivorship data, the FEA results showed a
good correlation between the predicted peak
cancellous bone stresses and the observed mean
subsidence, as measured two years post-operatively
(Taylor et al., 1995a). The implant designs which
generated the lowest cancellous bone stresses, were
those which migrated the least, whereas the
implants which generated high cancellous bone
stresses, migrated the most. Based on these results,
the initial cancellous bone stresses may be used to
predict the likelihood of early migration and hence
the incidence of late aseptic loosening (Taylor et al.,
1995a). To have more confidence in the predictions,
the finite element models need to be validated by
comparison with in vitro experimental results.
 Simões et al. (1997) developed an experimental
technique to measure the displacement field in the
surrounding of a bone-implant interface replicate.
In this study, commercial polyurethane foam
(HEREX® C 70) was used as bone substitute due to
its similar ultimate compressive strength/Young's
modulus ratio of cancellous bone. According to
Rohlmann et al. (6), the ultimate compressive
strength of cancellous bone is approximately 7
MPa and the elastic modulus can vary from 400
MPa to 1500 MPa. Considering this data, the
ultimate compressive strength/modulus ratio for the
foam and the cancellous bone used in this study
was of 71.4 and 57.1 (for a modulus of 400 MPa)
respectively. However, differences still exist at the
macroscopic and microscopic level between the
two structures.
The results published by these authors show that
the displacement pattern for the bonded and press-
fit situation are different, suggesting that the load
applied to the implant is transferred to the
surrounding in different ways. It was observed a
close qualitative correlation between the
experimental and the numerical results.
Since it was a preliminary study, no attempt was
made by the authors to replicate the real structure
of cancellous bone. The only objective within this
study was to assess if the speckle interferometry
technique was suitable to measure displacements,
and therefore deformations, within a structure with
similar cancellous bone characteristics.
In this study, the influence of the interface
conditions on the characterisation of the
displacement field in the immediate vacinity of
bone-implant interface was assessed.
2 - ESPI METHOD
Most conventional methods of measuring surface
strain and displacement utilise photoelastic, strain
gauges, dial gauges and other mechanical and
electrical sensing devices. These measuring
methods can be highly sensitive and accurate, but
give information in limited regions of the structure.
To obtain the strain or displacement distribution of
bigger areas it is necessary to use full field
techniques, like Moiré and Speckle. Moiré
techniques show in-plane displacements
distributions in a continuous manner over the entire
surface but its sensitivity depends on the grid pitch.
Some problems can arise on the production of high
frequency grids on the object surface with the
Moire method.
Speckle techniques can also be used to measure
in-plane displacement distributions. It is a non-
contact field technique that makes use of the
speckle patterns resulting from a coherent
illumination of a rough surface. This technique has
been widely used for accurate measurements of the
deformation patterns on structures when subjected
to mechanical or other stresses. One of its
advantages relies on its high sensitivity;
displacements of the order of the wavelength can de
assessed. The results within this method are
obtained in the form of fringe patterns, each fringe
corresponding to points having the same
displacement in the direction of the sensitivity
vector. The use of electronic recording media to
record the speckle patterns, the technique known as
Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI),
with image processing techniques allows one to
build a very flexible set-up to measure displacement
fields.
The study of porous structures, like the
trabecular cancellous bone, using optical methods
has not been done by researchers, although, Bay (5)
used texture correlation to measure the
displacement and strain patterns within samples of
trabecular bone. This technique is a modification of
digital image correlation, a method for analysis of
deformation in objects marked with random surface
speckle. Due to the cancellous bone structure
characteristics, and instead of surface speckle, the
trabecular pattern itself is used as a basis for
correlation.
3 - MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two fresh bovine femurs were used. The femurs
were sectioned in the front plane and the cancellous
bone of the proximal femur was fixed with an epoxy
resin to the test rig. Figure 1 shows the bone
specimen and the implant used. The test rig used by
Simões et al. (1997) was optimised to correctly
measure the applied forces and to avoid boundary
effects in the displacement measurements. The rig,
designed to enclosure the bone, has sufficient
rigidity to avoid rigid body displacements due to
applied load to the implant. For the bonded
situation, the implant was glued with a very thin
layer to the bone. It was observed that the glue did
not penetrate the cancellous bone and therefore did
not reinforce it at the contact area. The force applied
to the implant was made by imposing a constant
displacement on the implant.
 4 - RESULTS

The displacement field in the region of the bone

surrounding the bonded and the press-fit implant was
assessed in the axial and transverse direction of the
implant. For both, the press-fit and bonded implant,
a constant displacement was applied to the

Transverse
Implant
Axial

Figure 1 – Bone and implant used to study the

influence of different interface conditions.

A set-up with four directions of illumination was Bovine cancellous bone

used to measure the in-plane displacement field at
the surrounding bone due to the axial movement of
the implant (figure 2). In this set-up a liquid crystal Cortical bone
retarder (LCR) was used to shift the illumination Resin
from one direction to the other. So, this set-up is a
Figure 3 – Region of the cancellous bone adjacent to
duplication of the set-up proposed by Ennos (1968)
the implant where the fringes were assessed.
to assess in-plane displacements. In this case, using
a special routine of image processing, is possible to
record two different references and assess de in-
displacement distributions in two different
direction.

Figure 4 – Fringe pattern of the axial

displacements.

Figure 2 – The experimental set-up used to measure

the in-plane displacement field at the surrounding
media of the implant.

In the obtained fringe patterns each fringe

represents points of an equal displacement in the
sensitivity vector direction. An image processing
system was used to calculate the phase. Figure 3
shows the region of the cancellous bone, adjacent
to the implant, that was used to study the influence
of the interface conditions on the displacement
field induced by the implant. Figure 5 – Fringe pattern of the transverse
displacements.
implant and was observed that qualitatively the
fringe pattern did not depend on the displacement
value. The fringe pattern for the bonded implant, in
the axial and transverse directions, are shown in
figure 4 and 5 respectively. Identical results were
obtained for the press-fit implant and are shown in
figure 6 and 7 (axial and transverse direction).
Figure 6 – Fringe pattern of the axial displacements.
Figure 7 – Fringe pattern of the transverse
displacements.
5 - DISCUSSION
It has been speculated that the failure of the soft
spongy bone or cancellous bone supporting an
implant is one of the contributing factors to
migration and loosening (Taylor et al., 1995).
However, the majority of in vitro experimental and
analytical studies have concentrated on the cortical
bone stress and strain distributions, despite the
cancellous bone being the weakest material of any
bone-prosthesis construction. Very few studies have
been done to assess the stress-strain distribution due
to implants inserted in cancellous bone. The
primarily study done by Simões et al. (1997) clearly
shows that the experimental technique to obtain the
stress-strain distribution within porous material is
suitable, and therefore applicable to the examination
of the mechanical behaviour of a structure similar to
cancellous bone. The study presented in this
communication confirms the adaptability of the
ESPI technique to study deformation patterns within
cancellous bone.
The experimental set-up was sensitive to in-plane
displacements. The sensitivity vector is obtained by
the intersection of the plane defined by the two
beams with the surface of the bone, and the fringe
pattern shows the displacement distribution in each
of these directions. By using the set-up shown in
figure 2, it was possible to analyse the fringe
patterns in both directions without rotating the bone-
implant interface. Equal spaced parallel fringes
perpendicular to the sensitivity vector corresponds to
a uniform displacement field. Fringes spatial
frequency changes in the presence of deformation.
Fringes, which are not perpendicular to the
sensitivity vector, are due to rotations, which induce
corresponding displacements in the direction of the
sensitivity vector. So, the deformation field is
codified in the spatial frequency variation of the
fringe pattern and can be calculated by numerical
differentiation.
In the immediate vacinity of the bonded implant,
the fringe patterns are similar, in both directions, to
those obtained in the previous work done with foam.
As for the press-fit implant, some differences were
observed in the transverse direction. It can be seen
(figure 5 and 7) that the fringe patterns are similar,
which can be due to the different implant design
used in this study. The implant design used in our
previous study (Simões et al., 1997) was of a conical
type, whereas the one used in this study is of a
prismatic type (figure 1). We also observed that the
press-fit implant performed similar to the bonded
implant, although a higher force was necessary to
apply to the bonded implant to obtain a similar
number of fringes.
For the bonded implant, the points near the
implant move together with the surrounding
cancellous bone, since it is glued to it. It was
observed stress concentration zones due to the
implant edges. For the axial direction, it can be seen
that the fringe pattern for the bonded interface is
uniformly distributed, where for the press-fit
interface, a localised stress gradient is observed at
the implant edge.
The press-fit implant generated much higher
displacements. The bonded implant provokes a high
displacement gradient at its tip, whereas for the
press-fit implant this is not so pronounced. In all the
tests the cancellous-cortical bone boundary effect is
clearly evident. At this moment there are no
numerical differentiation of the ESPI results is
available. However a FEM analysis was performed
to compare the displacement field of the bonded
implant with the ones obtained with the ESPI. The
simulation was done only with the bonded implant,
since we do not know the friction coefficient of the
interface for the press-fit implant. Figure 8 shows
the FEM results for the axial (a) and transverse (b)
direction.
(a) (b)
Figure 8 - Iso-displacement field for the bonded
implant.
It can be observed, comparing figure 8 with
figure 4 and 5, that a good agreement was achieved
between the ESPI and FEM data.
Using image processing techniques, with phase
shift, the phase distribution was calculated in all of
the study area. As the phase is the relevant
information of the fringe pattern, it is possible to
calculate the displacements from the phase maps
and therefore the deformations.
This comparison shows that the ESPI
experimental method has a great potential to study
in more detail the influence of the interface bonding
conditions of bonded and unbonded implants. The
method also allows to obtain the numerical value of
the displacement distribution, which will be the aim
of a next study, and hence validate in the near future
a finite element model.
6 - CONCLUSIONS
To this end, it is possible to conclude that the ESPI
technique can be used for this application. Further
work is now in progress to perform a quantitative
comparison of the experimental results and the
finite element predictions.
Specimens of bovine cancellous bone will be
tested to obtain its mechanical characteristics to
accurately simulate the unbonded interface
conditions with a finite element model, using
contact elements with friction.
Concerning the main aim of this study, it was
observed that the interface bonding conditions play
an important role on the cancellous bone
displacement distribution and hence on the resulting
stress and strain patterns. A detailed knowledge of
the influence of the interface conditions, between
the implant and the surrounding bone, on the
displacement of the prosthesis within the
surrounding media would allow us to speculate,
with more certainty, on the mechanism of load
transfer.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Prof. Joaquim Silva Gomes,
director of the Optical and Experimental Mechanics
Laboratory (LOME) for the facilities given to
develop the experimental measurements.
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