Micro- and Nanoparticulate Hydroxyapatite Powders as Fillers in Polyacrylate Bone Cement-A Comparative Study

Acrylate polymer-based bone cements constitute the most popular bonding agents used in regenerative surgery. Due to their inferior biocompatibility, however, these materials are often enriched with ceramic additives including hydroxyapatite (HAp). The aim of this paper was to perform a comparative study of the acrylate cements filled with different content (3–21%) of nano- and microscale hydroxyapatite. The work concerns a comparison of times and temperatures of the cross-linking reaction, as well as morphology, glass transition temperature, and principal mechanical properties of the resulting composites. Before being used as a filler, both HAp forms were subjected to an in-depth characterization of their morphology, specific surface area, pore size distribution, and wettability as well as chemical composition and structure. For that purpose, such analytical techniques as scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, tensiometry, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, Shore D hardness test, and Charpy impact test were used. The results indicated a drop of cross-linking temperature and an extension of setting time with the addition of µHAp. The µHAp-filled acrylate composites were characterized by a globular surface morphology, higher glass transition temperature, and lower hardness and impact strength compared to nHAp-filled materials. This relationship was evident at higher nHAp concentrations.

An empirical model for calculation of the collimator contamination dose in therapeutic proton beams

Collimators are used as lateral beam shaping devices in proton therapy with passive scattering beam lines. The dose contamination due to collimator scattering can be as high as 10% of the maximum dose and influences calculation of the output factor or monitor units (MU). To date, commercial treatment planning systems generally use a zero-thickness collimator approximation ignoring edge scattering in the aperture collimator and few analytical models have been proposed to take scattering effects into account, mainly limited to the inner collimator face component. The aim of this study was to characterize and model aperture contamination by means of a fast and accurate analytical model. The entrance face collimator scatter distribution was modeled as a 3D secondary dose source. Predicted dose contaminations were compared to measurements and Monte Carlo simulations. Measurements were performed on two different proton beam lines (a fixed horizontal beam line and a gantry beam line) with divergent apertures and for several field sizes and energies. Discrepancies between analytical algorithm dose prediction and measurements were decreased from 10% to 2% using the proposed model. Gamma-index (2%/1 mm) was respected for more than 90% of pixels. The proposed analytical algorithm increases the accuracy of analytical dose calculations with reasonable computation times.

Interaction of parylene C with biological objects

The aim of the present work was to examine the interactions of parylene C with such selected biological objects as: blood plasma proteins, platelets, endothelial cells, and bacterial biofilm produced by E. coli cells. The results obtained strongly support the thesis that parylene C is a material worth considering for biomedical use. Parylene C coating on polished medical steel significantly reduces platelet adhesion to this surface. On the other hand, in the case of the surface of machined medical steel coated with parylene C, the number of adhered platelets is significantly higher. This also means that surface texture of substrate material is very well reproduced by parylene C coating and is an important factor facilitating the platelet adhesion. Adsorption of plasma proteins at parylene C surface is very effective, and this finding confirms a notion that cell interaction with surfaces is mediated by the adsorbed proteins. In the light of the above, a high susceptibility of parylene C surface to bacterial colonization is easy to explain. The results showing reduced proliferation and changes in endothelial cell gene expression should also be seriously analysed when parylene C is considered for the use in contact with blood vessels.

Quantifying lateral tissue heterogeneities in hadron therapy

In radiotherapy with scanned particle beams, tissue heterogeneities lateral to the beam direction are problematic in two ways: they pose a challenge to dose calculation algorithms, and they lead to a high sensitivity to setup errors. In order to quantify and avoid these problems, a heterogeneity number H(i) as a method to quantify lateral tissue heterogeneities of single beam spot i is introduced. To evaluate this new concept, two kinds of potential errors were investigated for single beam spots: First, the dose calculation error has been obtained by comparing the dose distribution computed by a simple pencil beam algorithm to more accurate Monte Carlo simulations. The resulting error is clearly correlated with H(i). Second, the analysis of the sensitivity to setup errors of single beam spots also showed a dependence on H(i). From this data it is concluded that H(i) can be used as a criterion to assess the risks of a compromised delivered dose due to lateral tissue heterogeneities. Furthermore, a method how to incorporate this information into the inverse planning process for intensity modulated proton therapy is presented. By suppressing beam spots with a high value of H(i), the unfavorable impact of lateral tissue heterogeneities can be reduced, leading to treatment plans which are more robust to dose calculation errors of the pencil beam algorithm. Additional possibilities to use the information of H(i) are outlined in the discussion.

Radiotherapy with laser-plasma accelerators: Monte Carlo simulation of dose deposited by an experimental quasimonoenergetic electron beam

The most recent experimental results obtained with laser-plasma accelerators are applied to radio-therapy simulations. The narrow electron beam, produced during the interaction of the laser with the gas jet, has a high charge (0.5 nC) and is quasimonoenergetic (170 +/- 20 MeV). The dose deposition is calculated in a water phantom placed at different distances from the diverging electron source. We show that, using magnetic fields to refocus the electron beam inside the water phantom, the transverse penumbra is improved. This electron beam is well suited for delivering a high dose peaked on the propagation axis, a sharp and narrow tranverse penumbra combined with a deep penetration.

Experimental determination and verification of the parameters used in a proton pencil beam algorithm

We present an experimental procedure for the determination and the verification under practical conditions of physical and computational parameters used in our proton pencil beam algorithm. The calculation of the dose delivered by a single pencil beam relies on a measured spread-out Bragg peak, and the description of its radial spread at depth features simple specific parameters accounting individually for the influence of the beam line as a whole, the beam energy modulation, the compensator, and the patient medium. For determining the experimental values of the physical parameters related to proton scattering, we utilized a simple relation between Gaussian radial spreads and the width of lateral penumbras. The contribution from the beam line has been extracted from lateral penumbra measurements in air: a linear variation with the distance collimator-point has been observed. Analytically predicted radial spreads within the patient were in good agreement with experimental values in water under various reference conditions. Results indicated no significant influence of the beam energy modulation. Using measurements in presence of Plexiglas slabs, a simple assumption on the effective source of scattering due to the compensator has been stated, leading to accurate radial spread calculations. Dose measurements in presence of complexly shaped compensators have been used to assess the performances of the algorithm supplied with the adequate physical parameters. One of these compensators has also been used, together with a reference configuration, for investigating a set of computational parameters decreasing the calculation time while maintaining a high level of accuracy. Faster dose computations have been performed for algorithm evaluation in the presence of geometrical and patient compensators, and have shown good agreement with the measured dose distributions.