A method for nondestructive mechanical testing of tissues and implants

Numerous tests have been used to elucidate mechanical properties of tissues and implants including tensile, compressive, shear, hydrostatic compression, and three-point bending in one or more axial directions. The development of a nondestructive test that could be applied to tissues and materials in vivo would promote the analysis of tissue pathology as well as the design of implant materials. The purpose of this article is to present the results of preliminary studies demonstrating nondestructive in vitro testing of a tissue model, decellularized human dermis, and a model implant, silicone rubber, using a combination of optical coherence tomography (OCT), and vibrational analysis. The results presented suggest that nondestructive vibrational testing of tissues and materials can be used to determine the modulus of polymeric materials and the results are similar to those found using tensile stress-strain measurements. The advantage of this method is that the modulus can be obtained from vibrational methods without having to approximate the tangent to the stress-strain curve, which is difficult for nonlinear materials that have a rapidly changing slope. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 15-22, 2017.