The Use Case: Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most prevalent and disabling degenerative diseases affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite years of research, understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of OA remains unclear. It has been speculated that the OA process may be triggered by altered strain transfer in the osteochondral unit. To investigate this further, a deep understanding of the cartilage-bone mechanics is of vital importance, especially their interface.

The Challenge: Investigation of the cartilage-bone interface with X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is challenging due to the different absorption of those two tissues. As an alternative to the well-established imaging with absorption contrast, propagation-based phase-contrast X-ray imaging has emerged as a technology capable of resolving unstained soft tissues and biomaterials.

The Solution: In the white paper, ZEISS Xradia Versa enabled high-resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT), in situ mechanical testing and digital volume correlation (DVC), providing a comprehensive toolset for analysis of the mechanical performance of biological tissues and biomaterials.