Skyscan 1176 micro

Samples were removed from the specimen containers and wrapped in cling film to
prevent desiccation. Wrapped samples were placed in the Skyscan 1176 micro-CT
scanner (Bruker, USA) and imaged at 90 kV, 278 µA, with a 0.1 mm Cu filtre and a
voxel size of 18 μm. Image segmentation for bone morphology was carried out
using mean Otsu threshold.²⁴

The harvested bony plate was left in a fixative 4% paraformaldehyde solution for 24 h and then immersed in a solution of 75% alcohol for dehydration. A SkyScan 1176 micro-CT (μCT) system (Bruker micro-CT, Belgium) was used to scan the harvested bony plate. Version 1.6 of the NRecon software was used for 3D reconstruction and viewing of images. Mimics 19.0 and 3-Matic 11.0 (Materialise, Belgium) were used to analyze the wall thickness of the bony plate.
The gelatin sponge, solidified gelatin sponge, bone wax, and harvested dehiscent sigmoid plate were observed using a Regulus 8100 ultra-high-resolution field-emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) (HITACHI, Japan) at 3.0 kV.

The joints were fixed in 4% formaldehyde for 3 days and then transferred into PBS for 24 hours. Afterwards all joints from 4 limbs were scanned and reconstructed into a three-dimensional structure with Skyscan1176 micro-CT (Bruker, Antwerp, Belgium) with a voxel size of 35 μm. The scanning was done at 55kV/455 mA, with a 0.2 mm aluminium filter. Exposure time was 47 ms. The X-ray projections were obtained at 0.7° intervals with a scanning angular rotation of 180°. The projection images were reconstructed into three-dimensional images using NRECON software (version 1.5.1; Bruker). After reconstruction, the 3D structures were assessed by two observers (T.J. and A.A.) using CTVox software in a blinded manner. A scoring system ranging from 0–3 (1- mild bone erosion; 2- moderate bone erosion; 3- marked bone erosion) was used[24 (link)].