Skull-brain interactions and anisotropic brain material properties measured by MR Elastography
Abstract
The duties of Navy warfighters put them at risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI), with potentially severe and lasting outcomes. Compu,tational models have great potential for use in development of technology to protect against TBI, but experimental data are needed t,o build and assess these models. We proposed to develop and apply novel measurement and analysis techniques to quantify skull-brain,mechanics experimentally. The measurement methods include magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) of the skull and brain, high resolut,ion diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), high-resolution anatomical imaging, and accelerometer measurements of skull and helmet motion. A,nalysis methods include anisotropic nonlinear inversion (aNLI) of MRE data for estimating material properties and characterization o,f the strains and stresses on the surface of the brain from motion imparted by the skull. A new model-based method which uses MRE da,ta to compute the surface stresses on heterogenous, anisotropic brain tissue will also be developed. The team will use these novel t,echniques to provide new quantitative measurements specifically of: (A) interactions between helmet, skull and brain, including the,transfer function between helmet and skull motion, the transfer function between skull motion and brain motion, and the mechanical, properties of the skull-brain interface; and (B) anisotropic (direction-dependent) mechanical properties of brain tissue, in both l,iving and dead brains. These techniques will be applied in imaging studies of (1) healthy human volunteers and (2) Yucatan minipigs,, all on clinical 3T MRI scanners. These techniques will extend current methods to measure and assess interactions at anatomical inte,rfaces, and to characterize mechanical properties of brain tissue, in human subjects and in a large animal model.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 05, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212198
Entities
People
- Philip V. Bayly
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- Washington University in St. Louis