Monday  |  Salon 8  |  10:40 AM–11:00 AM

#15772, Fascicular Tracking in Ovine Subjects Exposed to Blast Loading

This study aims to directly address the lack of knowledge linking head trauma to clinically relevant injuries, namely axonal and connective tissue pathology. Broadly speaking, ultra-high-speed imaging and digital image analysis capabilities will be used to measure living brain tissue deformation during the first few milliseconds of blast exposure.
With adherence to all required animal experimental codes, 15 living sheep and 5 Taxon phantoms will be exposed to shock waves of varying overpressure, duration, and complexity (from sub-concussive planar wave to high overpressure shocks with multiple reflections) in the Advanced Blast Chamber (ABC) MSU’s Laboratory for the Physics of Living Tissue Under Severe Interactions (PLUTSI).
Each sheep will have a clear cranial window implanted in the region of interest (ROI) to allow visualization of gyri, sulci, and cerebral vasculature while a dynamic loading is exerted. Images will be captured with ultra-high-speed imaging, and motion-tracking methods for digital images (PIV and/or DIC) will be implemented to determine the deformation of the visualized brain and vasculature. At completion of the analysis of gyral motion within the ROI, a calculated loading time history of each tissue point during exposure will be estimated.
Exposed and control sheep will be kept alive and monitored up to 24 hours following exposure in order to maximize detection of axonal injury (as is found in human motor vehicle victims who undergo autopsy while still minimizing changes secondary to downstream injury processes). Perfused and preserved brains will undergo high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropathologic analysis to further quantify damage.

Ricardo Mejia-Alvarez   Michigan State University
Bianca Davila-Montero   Michigan State University
Emma Todd   Michigan State University
Walter Schneider   University of Pittsburgh
Adam Willis   U.S. Air Force