Examination of annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus in cervical and lumbar intervertebral disc herniation patients by scanning acoustic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy

Bukem Tanoren; Beste Dipcin; Selcuk Birdogan; Mehmet Burcin Unlu; Cagatay Ozdol; Kamrhan Aghayev

doi:10.1039/d3ra07195b

Examination of annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus in cervical and lumbar intervertebral disc herniation patients by scanning acoustic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy

RSC Adv. 2024 Jan 15;14(4):2603-2609. doi: 10.1039/d3ra07195b. eCollection 2024 Jan 10.

Authors

Bukem Tanoren¹, Beste Dipcin², Selcuk Birdogan³, Mehmet Burcin Unlu⁴, Cagatay Ozdol⁵, Kamrhan Aghayev⁶

Affiliations

¹ Acibadem University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences Istanbul Turkey bukem.tanoren@acibadem.edu.tr +90 216 500 4156 +90 216 576 5076.
² Acibadem University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics Istanbul Turkey.
³ Sabanci University SUNUM Nanotechnology Research and Application Center Istanbul Turkey.
⁴ Bogazici University, Department of Physics Istanbul Turkey.
⁵ Antalya Education and Research Hospital Istanbul Turkey.
⁶ Esencan Hospital Istanbul Turkey.

Abstract

Intervertebral disc herniation (IVDH) is observed in humans as a result of the alteration of annulus fibrous (AF) and nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue compositions in intervertebral discs. In this study, we studied the feasibility of scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) in characterizing the herniated segments of AF and NP tissues from male and female patients. SAM determined the acoustic property variations in AF and NP tissues by calculating the acoustic impedance values of samples of 15 patients. SEM obtained higher resolution images and EDS made elemental analysis of the specimen. Consequently, we suggest that these techniques have the potential to be combined for the investigation and removal of the disrupted AF and NP tissues with micrometer resolution in clinics.