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Ανάλυση και χαρακτηρισμός οστεοαρθρικών χόνδρων γονάτου (Bachelor thesis)

Ταλαμανή, Μυρτώ/ Talamani, Mirto

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common degenerative joint diseases, with a significant impact on people's quality of life. Articular cartilage, as the main target tissue of the disease, shows structural and biochemical alterations associated with its progression. In this thesis, four articular cartilage samples of different degrees of osteoarthritis, according to the Kellgren-Lawrence scale (KL2 and KL3), were studied using the Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) technique. The analysis focused on determining the mean gyroscopic radius (Rg) through the Guinier region, investigating the fractal geometry through the Fractal region, and testing for the presence of a Porod region. The results showed that the two samples (KL3) showed similar characteristics to one of the two samples (KL2), indicating that the three samples are of the same degree of osteoarthritis (KL3). Furthermore, these three samples showed higher Rg values, in contrast to the first (KL2) sample which showed a significantly lower value, reflecting a different structure and possibly more preserved architecture at an early stage of the disease. In addition, all samples showed fractal surface dimension (2