PolyNaSS grafting on titanium surfaces enhances osteoblast differentiation and inhibits Staphylococcus aureus adhesion.

Titanium surface modifications to simultaneously prevent bacterial adhesion but promote bone-cell functions could be highly beneficial for improving implant osseointegration. In the present in vitro study, the effect of sulfonate groups on titanium surfaces was investigated with respect to both S. aureus adhesion and osteoblast functions pertinent to new bone formation. Commercial pure titanium (cpTi) squares were oxydized (Tiox), grafted with poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) groups (Tigraft) by covalent bonding using radical polymerization, and were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (HATR-FTIR) and colorimetry. Bacterial adhesion study showed that Tigraft exhibited high inhibition of S. aureus adhesion S at levels >90 %, when compared to cpTi (P < 0.05). In contrast osteoblasts adhesion was similar on all three titanium surfaces. While the kinetics of cell proliferation were similar on the three titanium surfaces, Alkaline phosphatase-specific activity of osteoblasts cultured on Tigraft surfaces was twofold higher than that observed on either on Tiox or cpTi surfaces (P < 0.01). More importantly, the amount and the distribution of calcium-containing nodules was different. The total area covered by calcium-containing nodules was 2.2-fold higher on the Tigraft as compared to either Tiox or cpTi surfaces (P < 0.01). These results provide evidence that poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) groups grafting on cpTi simultaneously inhibits bacteria adhesion but promote osteoblast function pertinent to new bone formation. Such modified titanium surfaces offer a promising strategy for preventing biofilm-related infections and enhancing osteointegration of implants in orthopaedic and dental applications.

Correction for human head motion in helical x-ray CT.

Correction for rigid object motion in helical CT can be achieved by reconstructing from a modified source-detector orbit, determined by the object motion during the scan. This ensures that all projections are consistent, but it does not guarantee that the projections are complete in the sense of being sufficient for exact reconstruction. We have previously shown with phantom measurements that motion-corrected helical CT scans can suffer from data-insufficiency, in particular for severe motions and at high pitch. To study whether such data-insufficiency artefacts could also affect the motion-corrected CT images of patients undergoing head CT scans, we used an optical motion tracking system to record the head movements of 10 healthy volunteers while they executed each of the 4 different types of motion ('no', slight, moderate and severe) for 60 s. From these data we simulated 354 motion-affected CT scans of a voxelized human head phantom and reconstructed them with and without motion correction. For each simulation, motion-corrected (MC) images were compared with the motion-free reference, by visual inspection and with quantitative similarity metrics. Motion correction improved similarity metrics in all simulations. Of the 270 simulations performed with moderate or less motion, only 2 resulted in visible residual artefacts in the MC images. The maximum range of motion in these simulations would encompass that encountered in the vast majority of clinical scans. With severe motion, residual artefacts were observed in about 60% of the simulations. We also evaluated a new method of mapping local data sufficiency based on the degree to which Tuy's condition is locally satisfied, and observed that areas with high Tuy values corresponded to the locations of residual artefacts in the MC images. We conclude that our method can provide accurate and artefact-free MC images with most types of head motion likely to be encountered in CT imaging, provided that the motion can be accurately determined.