Elisabetta M Zanetti

Università degli Studi di Perugia | UNIPG · Department of Engineering

Polyether-ether-2-ketone (PEKK) is a high-performance thermoplastic polymer used in various fields, from aerospace to medical applications, due to its exceptional mechanical and thermal properties. Nonetheless, the mechanical behavior of 3D-printed PEKK still deserves to be more thoroughly investigated, especially in view of its production by 3D pr...

Introduction: Flatfoot is a condition commonly seen in children; however, there is general disagreement over its incidence, characterization and correction. Painful flatfoot accompanied with musculoskeletal and soft tissue problems requires surgery to avoid arthritis in adulthood, the most common surgical approach being two osteotomies to the calc...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) of load-bearing metal implants allows sustainable production of personalized implants with complex shapes and inner architectures. Implants must meet strict requirements to not harm patients, and production technique must certify their performance. Available materials, many production parameters and implant personalizati...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) permits sustainable production of personalized load-bearing metal implants with complex structures. Regulations prescribe that implants have to meet strict requirements to not harm patients, and production technique should allow the certification of their performance. Process, materials, operating parameters, and customi...

Human computer models represent a useful tool for investigating the human body response to external static/dynamic loads or for human-centred design. Articulated Total Body (ATB) models are the simplest human multibody models, where body segments are represented by ellipsoids joined at skeletal articulations. Over the years, regression models on bo...

In vitro ovarian cortical tissue culture, followed by culture of isolated secondary follicles, is a promising future option for production of mature oocytes. Although efforts have been made to improve the culture outcome by changing the medium composition, so far, most studies used static culture systems. Here we describe the outcome of 7 days cult...

Snap-fit joints represent a simple, economical and straightforward way of joining two different components. The design of the snap-fit joint is usually performed evaluating peak stresses that must be tolerated by the material without incurring into failure or plastic deformations; in addition, the force needed to join and disassemble parts is estim...

Anomaly detection is the identification of any event that falls outside what is considered ‘acceptable behaviour’. This work investigates anomaly detection for automated visual inspection in the context of industry automation (‘Industry 4.0’). For this task we propose a machine vision procedure based on visual feature extraction and one-class k nea...

Benign and malignant lesions in tissues or organs can be detected by elastographic investigations in which pathological regions are spotted from local alterations of the stiffness. As is known, the shear modulus provides a measure of the stiffness of an elastic material. Based on the classical theory of linear elasticity, an elastogram yields estim...

The study of the spine range of motion under given external load has been the object of many studies in literature, finalised to a better understanding of the spine biomechanics, its physiology, eventual pathologic conditions and possible rehabilitation strategies. However, the huge amount of experimental work performed so far cannot be straightfor...

Additive Manufacturing technologies have opened new perspectives for the realization of tissue and organs substitutes. The main advantages come from the possibility of using the same technology to produce artificial or biological substitutes in a wide range of outer shapes and inner reticular architectures, which may pave the way to their use to pr...

p>In this work the performances of three different techniques for 3D scanning have been investigated. In particular two commercial tools (smartphone camera and iPad Pro LiDAR) and a structured light scanner (Go!SCAN 50) have been used for the analysis. First of all, two different subjects have been scanned with the three different techniques and th...

A catastrophic fracture of the radial carpal bone experienced by a racehorse during a Palio race was analyzed. Computational modelling of the carpal joint at the point of failure informed by live data was generated using a multibody code for dynamics simulation. The circuit design in a turn, the speed of the animal and the surface characteristics w...

Objective: To validate the use of a polyblend tape suture in equine laryngoplasty (PL). Study design: Experimental study. Animals: Thirty-two cadaveric larynges. Methods: Each larynx was randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: PL with polyblend tape suture (TigerTape), without (TT) or with a cannula (TTC) in the muscular process of the arytenoid...

In this work a new approach for the creation of Articulated Total Body (ATB) models for person-specific multi-body simulations is presented, with the main aim of overcoming limitations related to classical multi-ellipsoids ATB models, based on regression equations having only the weight and the height of the subject as input. The new methodology is...

Liver cells cultured in 3D bioreactors is an interesting option for temporary extracorporeal liver support in the treatment of acute liver failure and for animal models for preclinical drug screening. Bioreactor capacity to eliminate drugs is generally used for assessing cell metabolic competence in different bioreactors or to scale-up bioreactor d...

We have set up a procedure for the construction of a PCA-based statistical model using two databases of bones’ CTs: with this tool you will be able to generate 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝟯𝗗 𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗲𝗺𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀, according to their actual statistical shape distributions, export geometries in 𝗖𝗔𝗗 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁 and use them for performing your anal...

Principal components analysis is a powerful technique which can be used to reduce data dimensionality. With reference to three-dimensional bone shape models, it can be used to generate an unlimited number of models, defined by thousands of nodes, from a limited (less than twenty) number of scalars. The full procedure has been here described in deta...

Laryngoscopes are used as diagnostic devices for throat inspection or as an aid to intubation. Their blade must be geometrically compatible with patients’ anatomy to provide a good view to doctors with minimal discomfort to patients. For this reason, this paper was aimed to investigate the feasibility of producing customized blades. The customizabl...

Background: City circuit competitions (Palio) in Italy are traditional horse race held in the heart of some cities centre once a year. The prevalence of accidents during these competitions is only anecdotally reported; however there is a diffuse perception that these events adversely affect racehorse industry and impact on equine welfare. The aim o...

The present work illustrates the dynamization of an orthopaedic plate for internal fracture fixation which is thought to shorten healing times and enhance the quality of the new formed bone. The dynamization is performed wirelessly thanks to a magnetic coupling. The paper shows the peculiarities of the design and manufacturing of this system: it in...

The ovary is a dynamic mechanoresponsive organ. In vitro, tissue biomechanics was reported to affect follicle activation mainly through the Hippo pathway. Only recently, ovary responsiveness to mechanical signals was exploited for reproductive purposes. Unfortunately, poor characterization of ovarian cortex biomechanics and of the mechanical challe...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00180.].

The design of loading systems to test biologic samples is often challenging, due to shape variability and non-conventional loading set-ups. In addition to this, large economic investments would not be justified since the loading set up is usually designed for one single or for a limited range of applications. The object of this work is the developm...

Implant fixed dental prostheses are widely used for the treatment of edentulism, often preferred over the screw-retained ones. However, one of the main features of an implant-supported prosthesis is retrievability, which could be necessary in the case of implant complications. In this study, the retrievability of implant-fixed dental prostheses was...

Intramedullary nails constitute a viable alternative to extramedullary fixation devices; their use is growing in recent years, especially with reference to self-locking nails. Different designs are available, and it is not trivial to foresee the respective in vivo performances and to provide clinical indications in relation to the type of bone and...

A number of surgical practices are aimed to compensate for tissue relaxation or weakened/atrophied muscles by means of suture prostheses/thread lifts. The success rate of these procedures is often very good in the short term, while it is quite variable among subjects and techniques in the middle-long term. Middle-long term failures are mostly relat...

Cement-retained implant-supported prosthetics are gaining popularity compared to the alternative screw-retained type, a rise that serves to highlight the importance of retrievability. The aim of the present investigation is to determine the influence of luting agent, abutment height and taper angle on the retrievability of abutment–coping cementati...

A number of applications in the surgical practice are based on tensile sutures aimed to keep soft tissues in place and compensate the exit of neuropathies, prolapses or general tissue relaxation. Long-term behaviour of these constructs need to be carefully examined in order to define tensile forces to be applied and to compare different suture anch...

This work is focused on the analysis of the fall of a human being from a given height. With reference to forensic disputes, the final subject position is often the only evidence and foreseeing the body trajectory and the respective driving force may not be trivial. This article illustrates how multibody models can be used for this aim. A multibody...

The aim of this research is to develop patient-specific 3D mandible models, based on a limited number of measurements taken on the patient. Twenty Computed Tomography scans were used to build the respective 3D cad models of the mandible. Fifteen of these models were given as an input to a Principal Component Analysis software, and eight ‘principal’...

The final subject position is often the only evidence in the case of the fall of a human being from a given height. Foreseeing the body trajectory and the respective driving force may not be trivial due to the possibility of rotations and to an unknown initial position and momentum of the subject. This article illustrates how multibody models can b...

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency can result in serious degenerative stifle injuries. Although tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) is a common method for the surgical treatment of ACL deficiency, alternative osteotomies, such as a leveling osteotomy based on the center of rotation of angulation (CBLO) are described in the literature....

Artificial turf pitches are even more used than natural ones for their pragmatic advantages. Artificial turf does not need much maintenance and can be used in every climate conditions. On the other hands, the synthetic grass alters the players’ feeling during a match. This altered perception is mostly due to the traction forces exchanged between th...

The Marchetti-Vicenzi's nail is an intramedullary device where six curved nails are kept straight by a closing ring in order to allow their insertion into the medullary canal of a long bone; in a following step, these nails stabilize the fracture due to the ring withdrawal and to the consequent elastic expansion of the nails. Pre-clinical testing o...

Background: Tooth-supported fixed dentures are commonly used in restorative dentistry, and have definitely reached a high survival rate; nevertheless, their removal is sometimes required mainly due to caries or other failures (poor fit, poor cementation and so on). Removing a definitive partial denture is not trivial since the used cement is not al...

Il chiodo Marchetti-Vicenzi è un dispositivo endomidollare che permette di inserire all'interno di un osso lungo sei chiodi flessibili, i quali espandono elasticamente e stabilizzano la frattura. In questo lavoro numerico è stato realizzato un modello MBS flessibile del dispositivo, con il duplice intento di valutare le forze scambiate tra l'osso e...

The optimization of loading protocols following dental implant insertion requires setting up patient-specific protocols, customized according to the actual implant osseointegration, measured through quantitative, objective methods. Various devices for the assessment of implant stability as an indirect measure of implant osseointegration have been d...

Background Tooth-supported fixed dentures are commonly used in restorative dentistry, and have definitely reached a high survival rate; nevertheless, their removal is sometimes required mainly due to caries or other failures (poor fit, poor cementation and so on). Removing a definitive partial denture is not trivial since the used cement is not alw...

Objective: To investigate the influence of implant design on the change in the natural frequency of bone-implant system during osseointegration by means of a modal 3D finite element analysis. Methods: Six implants were considered. Solid models were obtained by means of reverse engineering techniques. The mandibular bone geometry was built-up fro...

Finite element models in conjunction with adequate constitutive relations are pivotal in several physiological and medical applications related to both native and engineered tissues, allowing to predict the tissue response under various loading states. In order to get reliable results, however, the validation of the constitutive models is crucial....

The surgical treatment of pelvic fractures has been proved to be technically challenging; 3D imaging and navigation can give a substantial benefit; a further step is here introduced with robotized fracture reduction. A specific device to be interfaced with existing surgical tables has been designed; its main specifications are allowing 3D fluorosco...

Objective: To assess the influence of implant thread shape and inclination on the mechanical behaviour of bone-implant systems. The study assesses which factors influence the initial and full osseointegration stages. Methods: Point clouds of the original implant were created using a non-contact reverse engineering technique. A 3D tessellated sur...

Background Human Acellular Dermal Matrices (HADMs), thanks to its mechanical resistance and it’s not immunogenic response, is used in reconstructive surgery such as breast reconstruction procedures and hernia repairs. There is the need to investigate the mechanical response of HADMs when subjected to in vivo-like stresses. Aims In order to...

The elbow ligamentous and bony structures play essential roles in the joint stability. Nevertheless, the contribution of different structures to joint stability is not yet clear and a comprehensive experimental investigation into the ligament and osseous constraints changes in relation to joint motions would be uphill and somehow unattainable, due...

Background Additive manufacturing technologies are being enthusiastically adopted by the orthopaedic community since they are providing new perspectives and new possibilities. First applications were finalised for educational purposes, pre-operative planning, and design of surgical guides; recent applications also encompass the production of implan...

This work is focused on racing cars driver’s training. Nine different tracks are considered and six drivers. Each driver drives on every track and performs consecutive trial sessions on each track; each session is made of various laps, and lap times are fitted using an exponential model, yielding an estimate of the initial performance, the learning...

Background: Double pelvic osteotomy (DPO) planning is usually performed by hip palpation, and on radiographic images which give a poor representation of the complex three-dimensional manoeuvre required during surgery. Furthermore, bone strains which play a crucial role cannot be foreseen. Objective: To support surgeons and designers with biomech...

Background The dermis is a commonly used source tissue for biologic scaffolds; all cellular and nuclear materials need to be removed to limit the inflammatory immune response by the host organism. The decellularization is critical because it must preserve the structural integrity of the extracellular matrix. This work has analyzed a decellularizati...

Human acellular dermal matrices (HADMs) are used in reconstructive surgery as scaffolds promoting autologous tissue regeneration. Critical to the HADM ability to remodel and integrate into the host tissue is the removal of cells while maintaining an intact extracellular architecture. The objective of this work is to develop a methodology to analyse...

A procedure for the constitutive analysis of bladder tissues mechanical behavior is provided, by using a coupled experimental and computational approach. The first step pertains to the design and development of mechanical tests on specimens from porcine bladders. The bladders have been harvested, and the specimens have been subjected to uniaxial cy...

The purpose of this study was to describe the force generated by two different removal devices used to retrieve cemented crowns on implant abutments. The influence of six different operators was evaluated. Three replicated Coronaflex(®) (Kaltenbach & Voigt GmbH, KaVo Dental GmbH) and reverse hammer setups were tested. The experimental setup has emp...

Under hoist transmission jacks are indispensable tools for vehicle service and maintenance. They are critical due to their high height/base width ratio, large carried weights and size, poor visibility. This work moves from the analysis of an actual accident where a trans-jack overturned; this event is one of manual handling injuries, usually classi...

Intra-oral scanning technology is a very fast-growing field in dentistry since it responds to the need of an accurate three-dimensional mapping of the mouth, as required in a large number of procedures such as restorative dentistry and orthodontics. Nowadays, more than 10 intra-oral scanning devices for restorative dentistry have been developed all...

The object of this paper is testing the performance of a new device for 3D oral scanning: a two channel PTOF (pulsed time-of-flight) laser scanner, designed for dental and industrial applications in the measurement range of zero to a few centimetres. The application on short distances (0–10 cm) has entailed the improvement of performance parameters...

Objective: To set up a prescreening tool for vehicle front-end design, allowing numerically forecasting of the results of EC directive tests, with reference to pedestrian lower leg impact. Methods: A numerical legform model has been developed and certified according to EC directive. The frontal end of the vehicle has been simulated through a lum...

The correct estimation of stem boundary conditions in hip arthroplasty cannot be performed simply by subtracting the prosthesis volume from the bone volume: the stem implant path needs to be taken into account. Digital mock-up is a technique commonly applied in the automotive field which can be used for this aim. Given a certain femur, a stem, and...

The mechanical behaviour of skin is very important as regards dermatology, surgery and impact trauma. Engineered skin substitutes can bring significant medical benefit, in particular to patients with extensive burn wounds, even if current skin substitutes do not restore normal skin anatomy and its natural mechanical properties. This work considers...

This work analyses blunt abdominal trauma produced by driver-handlebar collision, in low speed two-wheel accidents. A simplified dynamic model is introduced, whose parameters have been estimated on the basis of cadaver tests. This model allows calculating the peak impact force and the abdominal penetration depth; therefore the likelihood of occurre...

Abstract Artificial turf is being used more and more often. It is more available than natural turf for use, requires much less maintenance and new products are able to comply with sport performance and athletes' safety. The purpose of this paper is to compare the mechanical and biomechanical responses of two different artificial turf infills (styre...

Background: computerised image analysis and the building of electronic archives require the digitisation of x-ray films performed in the past, when direct digitisation was not yet available. Different techniques can be used, based on laser scanning or camera acquisition; both can be heavily impaired by the non-uniformity of the backlighting source....

This work is aimed at designing and constructing a loading rig for the synthetic hemi-pelvis; this system has been conceived with the goal of applying differently oriented articular forces in order to experimentally test the stress distribution and the stability of surgical reconstructions like, for example, hip arthroplasty or pelvic fixation. Thi...

The fundamental passive mechanical properties of the bladder need to be known in order to design the most appropriate long-term surgical repair procedures and develop materials for bladder reconstruction. This study has focused on the bladder tissue viscoelastic behavior, providing a comprehensive analysis of the effects of fibers orientation, stra...

A hip prosthesis implant produces a significant deviation in the stress pattern compared with the physiologic condition. In this work, the stress patterns are evaluated experimentally on synthetic femora, by means of thermoelastic stress analysis. Two factors have been considered: stem implantation and head offset. Stress maps were obtained using d...

A global study of geometry and material properties of orthopedic screws was performed, considering not only the effect of each single factor (screw pitch, number of threads, fillet angle, etc.) but also their interactions with respect to bone density. The stress patterns resulting from different screw geometries and bone densities were analyzed usi...

A global study of geometry and material properties of orthopedic screws was performed, considering not only the effect of each single factor (screw pitch, number of threads, fillet angle, etc.) but also their interactions with respect to bone density. The stress patterns resulting from different screw geometries and bone densities were analyzed usi...

This chapter deals with the structural analysis of bone elements, performed both numerically and experimentally. Among numerical techniques, the finite element method is discussed at length, focusing on its applications to bone biomechanics. The main steps involved in the method are analyzed from the practical perspective, and guidelines about deal...

L’impianto di una protesi d’anca produce una variazione nella distribuzione delle tensioni rispetto alla condizione fisiologica. Tale distribuzione viene qui misurata sperimentalmente mediante impiego della tecnica termoelastica differenziale (TSA). Nella pianificazione degli esperimenti, sono stati considerati due effetti: l’impianto della protesi...

The purpose of this study was to establish whether players' perceptions in football competitions played on artificial turf can be influenced by the pitch under examination, the kind of infill material used, the weather conditions and by player's role in the team. A multifactorial statistical analysis was made of the results obtained from over 1600...

Hip dislocation is still a relevant clinical issue of hip arthroplasty [Stralen et al. 2003, Berry et al. 2004]. The factors which play an influence on the propensity for dislocation are related to the patient's anamnesis and to the surgical interview: for example, the acetabular position and orientation, the femoral head size, the neck diameter an...

A review of recent literature revealed a very high success rate of implants used to support a mandibular overdenture as an alternative to the conventional removable dentistry. Today there are already several prosthetic solutions for the same clinical situations: in particular, the implant support can be different depending on the type of implants u...

A thermoelastic stress analysis was done for the evaluation of an thermoelastic effect by using differential thermocameras equipped with array detectors that defies certain limitations of other thermocameras. In addition, the measurement of very small temperature changes does no longer require the use of highly sensitive infrared detectors and a lo...