Echographic response of the bone-implant interface: dependence on healing time

Vincent Mathieu , Romain Vayron , Emmanuel Soffer , Fani Anagnostou , Guillaume Haiat

The effect of bone healing on the ultrasonic response of coin-shaped titanium implants is investigated. Two groups of eight implants were inserted on the tibiae of New Zealand White rabbits, each group corresponding to a healing duration (7 or 13 weeks). After the sacrifice, a 2-D scanning device was used in order to measure the ultrasonic response of the bone-implant interface in vitro at 15 MHz. The average value of the ratio r between the amplitudes of the echo of the bone-implant interface and of the water-implant interface was determined. Histological techniques were used to determine the fraction of implant surface in contact with bone (BIC). The ultrasonic quantitative indicator r is significantly higher (p = 2.10^-4) after seven weeks of healing time (r = 0.53) than after thirteen weeks (r= 0.49). The increase of mineralization of newly formed bone tissue and the increase of the BIC (from 27 % to 69 %) are responsible for the decrease of the gap of acoustical impedance at the bone-implant interface.

Mots clés: Bone; Implant; Ultrasound; Osseointegration

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Vincent Mathieu, Romain Vayron, Emmanuel Soffer, Fani Anagnostou, Guillaume Haiat. Echographic response of the bone-implant interface: dependence on healing time. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811249⟩