Computational Simulation of Knee Osteoarthritis Development

CBET-0828253本项目旨在开发一种最先进的自适应建模方法，以模拟膝关节骨关节炎(OA)如何随着时间的推移而发展，以响应前十字韧带(ACL)损伤引起的机械环境变化。该方法不寻求通过高度复杂的模型来捕捉疾病过程的每一分钟细节，而是寻求通过简单模型的组合来捕捉一阶效应。表面几何形状、关节运动和关节负荷输入将来自于一个健康膝关节和一个前交叉韧带缺乏的骨性关节炎患者。该方法将通过尝试将每个患者健康膝关节的计算模型中的关节软骨改变为患者前交叉韧带缺陷膝关节的关节软骨来进行评估。拟议活动的智能优点将是创建一种新的自适应模拟方法，可以预测关节软骨厚度随时间的渐进变化。该方法将使用一种新的经验软骨适应律结合到迭代关节级别的动态接触模拟中进行研究。这项拟议的研究具有变革性，因为它可能为研究膝关节和其他关节的骨性关节炎的启动和进展开辟一条全新的途径。拟议活动的更广泛的影响包括阐明改变运动和负荷导致软骨退化的机制的可能性。这些知识可以为膝骨性关节炎新疗法的开发提供有价值的第一步。更广泛的影响还包括让工程学院的学生在当地一所毕业率低、经济困难学生比例高的高中担任导师，以及让少数民族和女性高中和大学生接触到工程机械可以用来解决与膝盖骨关节炎相关的临床重大问题的方法。

CBET-0828253FreglyThis project seeks to develop a state-of-the-art adaptive modeling approach to simulate how knee osteoarthritis (OA) develops over time in response to an altered mechanical environment caused by anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. The approach does not seek to capture every minute detail of the disease process with a highly complicated model but rather seeks to capture the first order effects with a combination of simple models. Surface geometry, joint motion, and joint load inputs will come from individual patients with one healthy knee and one osteoarthritic ACL-deficient knee. The approach will be evaluated by attempting to change the articular cartilage in a computational model of each patient's healthy knee into the articular cartilage of the patient's ACL-deficient knee.The intellectual merit of the proposed activity will be the creation of a new adaptive simulation approach that can predict progressive changes in articular cartilage thickness over time. The method will be investigated using a novel empirical cartilage adaptation law incorporated into iterative joint-level dynamic contact simulations. The proposed research is transformative in that it may open up an entirely new avenue for studying OA initiation and progression in the knee as well as in other joints.The broader impact of the proposed activity includes the possibility of elucidating the mechanism by which altered motions and loads lead to cartilage degeneration. Such knowledge could provide a valuable first step toward the development of new treatments for knee OA. The broader impact also includes involvement of engineering college students as mentors at a local high school with a low graduation rate and high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, and exposure of minority and female high school and college students to ways that engineering mechanics can be used to address clinically significant problems related to knee OA.