We were interested only in the T2-weighted sagittal slices of the lumbar spine (slice thickness of 4 mm, matrix of 512 × 512 and field of view varying from 320 × 320 mm2 to 400 × 400 mm), in which the nucleus zone can be differentiated from the annulus zone using the segmentation of the high signal intensity zone.
Diastolic function was assessed by an approach that integrates Doppler measurements of the mitral inflow and Doppler tissue imaging of the mitral annulus using the early diastolic septal annular velocity (e') [ 23].
Interventions: A spinal catheter consisting of a thermal-resistive heating coil was placed circumferentially into the outer annulus by using the standard extrapedicular discographic technique through a 17-gauge introducer needle.
Subsequently, using a commercially available software package (EchoPAC PC version BT112, GE Healthcare), each view of the averaged single beat was aligned to the standard apical views, using the positions of the mitral annulus plane and the apex as markers.
The effective thermal conductivity keff) of the annulus was calculated by using the experimental data and numerical solution results and also compared with the well known correlation.
The sum fluorescence intensity per annulus area was measured using the Leica software.
Therefore, the aortic annulus enlargement is made only using the aortic bioprosthesis, without other material.
The nonlinear annulus ground substance was simulated by using the hyper-elastic Mooney-Rivlin formulation [ 23].
Early mitral annulus velocity (E´) was measured at the septal portion of the mitral annulus in an apical four chambers view using the tissue Doppler imaging technique.
Human disc tissue, annulus cells in monolayer, and annulus cells in three-dimensional culture were assayed for gene expression using the Affymetrix microarray system (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA).
