Biomechanical Response of the Brain following Exposure to Non-Lethal Blast Waves
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleaseSince 2006, blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) by explosives is the leading cause of injury to s ervice members of the United States Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard). This injury occurs due to a shock wave that can propagate through the service member, following detonation of a bomb or improvised explosive device (IED). Curr ently, a standardized method to detect bTBI both on-site and in a quantitative manner does not exist. Therefore, there is a need to diagnose bTBI through the use of biomarkers in biofluids (e.g. cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and saliva) to facilitate better point-of -care testing and screening therapeutics of service members exposed to bombs and IEDs. Testing biofluids such as cerebrospinal fluid , blood, and saliva can be performed with limited medical equipment, which will allow for improved efficiency in diagnosing and esta blishing critical care plans for service members exposed to blasts. Additionally, symptoms of bTBI include memory loss, headache, de pression, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These symptoms cannot be prevented by wearing current combat helmets, which are designed to protect against skull fracture and penetrating objects. Designing helmets that can mitigate bTBI and the resulting s ymptoms is therefore necessary, but requires an understanding of the helmet liner response to a blast wave. The goal of this project is therefore two-fold: (1) proteomic biomarker level changes in the cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and saliva will be quantified as a function of blast wave exposure utilizing molecular biology techniques. These biomarker level changes will be correlated with variat ions in intracranial pressure and immunohistopathology analysis of post-mortem brain tissue, using statistical analysis. Additionall y, the sensitivity and representativeness of biomarker levels in cerebrospinal fluid, blood and saliva will be assessed. In this way , a direct translation of the results to clinically determine bTBI and potential point-of-care-testing can be made by establishing c ritical testing windows, as well as viable diagnostic analysis for the three different biofluids considered. (2) The deformation beh avior of current combat helmet liners, when exposed to a blast wave, will be quantified. The results from the helmet liner study wil l facilitate the creation of future design guidelines for the selection of materials and/or technologies to mitigate bTBI. Together, completion of the two aspects of this project (i.e. quantifying biomarker level changes and characterizing combat helmet liner defo rmation due to a blast wave) will produce data that can directly impact and improve DoD capability at diagnosing and preventing blas t-induced traumatic injury. This will be accomplished by enabling the data gathered from this work to be used for optimizing diagnos tic and treatment strategies for service members suffering from a bTBI. Additionally, the data from this work will begin the initial process of understanding how to design combat helmets that can prevent both blunt and blast-induced traumatic brain injury.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 22, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112906
Entities
People
- Sarah A. Bentil
Organizations
- Iowa State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy