Sub-lethal Ocular Trauma (SLOT): Establishing a Standardized Blast Threshold to Facilitate Diagnostic, Early Treatment, and Recovery Studies for Blast Injuries to the Eye and Optic Nerve
Abstract
Blast experiments on enucleated porcine eye specimens and in vivo rabbits were conducted in a large diameter shock tube and supported with computational analysis using the finite volume blast and shock physics code CTH and finite element code LS-DYNA. The shock tube produced a broad array of closed-globe injuries in the porcine eyes including angle recession, cyclodialysis, peripheral chorioretinal detachments, radial peripapillary retinal detachments, and internal scleral delaminations. The most frequently observed injuries were angle recession and chorioretinal detachments, while the most severely damaged tissues were the sclera and retina. Globe rupture was not observed. Post-blast examination of the exposed rabbits revealed increases in thickness of the cornea, inner retinal, and nerve fiber layers immediately and 48 hours after blast exposure. Post-blast immunoassays of rabbit aqueous and blood plasma showed significant correlations of NGF-??, NSE, G-CSF, Eotaxin, MIP-1a, Il-4, IL-13, IL-12(p)70, MCP-1, LiX, and MIP-2 with blast impulse. Computational eye models revealed differential movement of internal structures relative to the vitreous to be a likely mechanism of injury to the retina, sclera, and ciliary body. An ocular incapacitation risk model was developed based on the ex vivo porcine eye experiments and tissue-specific injury scores. The data significantly increased our understanding of ocular injury due to primary blast.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA623380
Entities
People
- Brian J. Lund
- Jae H. Choi
- Matthew A. Reilly
- Randolph D. Glickman
- Walt Gray
- William E. Sponsel
Organizations
- University of Texas at San Antonio