scholarly journals Practical application of synthetic head models in real ballistic cases

Author(s):  
F. Riva ◽  
T. Fracasso ◽  
A. Guerra ◽  
P. Genet

AbstractIn shooting crimes, ballistics tests are often recommended in order to reproduce the wound characteristics of the involved persons. For this purpose, several “simulants” can be used. However, despite the efforts in the research of “surrogates” in the field of forensic ballistic, the development of synthetic models needs still to be improved through a validation process based on specific real caseworks. This study has been triggered by the findings observed during the autopsy performed on two victims killed in the same shooting incident, with similar wounding characteristics; namely two retained head shots with ricochet against the interior wall of the skull; both projectiles have been recovered during the autopsies after migration in the brain parenchyma. The thickness of the different tissues and structures along the bullets trajectories as well as the incident angles between the bullets paths and the skull walls have been measured and reproduced during the assemblage of the synthetic head models. Two different types of models (“open shape” and “spherical”) have been assembled using leather, polyurethane and gelatine to simulate respectively skin, bone and soft tissues. Six shots have been performed in total. The results of the models have been compared to the findings of post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) and the autopsy findings.Out of the six shots, two perforated the models and four were retained. When the projectile was retained, the use of both models allowed reproducing the wounds characteristics observed on both victims in terms of penetration and ricochet behaviour. However, the projectiles recovered from the models showed less deformation than the bullets collected during the autopsies. The “open shape” model allowed a better controlling on the shooting parameters than the “spherical” model. Finally, the difference in bullet deformation could be caused by the choice of the bone simulant, which might under-represent either the strength or the density of the human bone. In our opinion, it would be worth to develop a new, more representative material for ballistic which simulates the human bone.

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (04) ◽  
pp. 277-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Brand ◽  
Andrej Pala ◽  
Wilhelm Kielhorn ◽  
Christian Rainer Wirtz ◽  
Thomas Kapapa

Objective The aim of the study was to compare two techniques for external ventricular drainage (EVD) placement with respect to their complication rates. Methods A retrospective descriptive study was performed to analyze all patients who had undergone EVD implantation for acute hydrocephalus between January 2010 and December 2013 with a focus on surgical technique and rate of complications. The burr hole technique (BHT) was used in one group and the twist-drill technique (TDT) in the other. Particular attention was paid to malposition, hemorrhage, and catheter-associated infection. Results A total of 350 consecutive patients underwent EVD implantation for acute hydrocephalus: BHT was performed in 201 and TDT in 147 of the patients, whereas in two patients the technique used was unknown. The overall infection rate was 6.3% (n = 22). Fourteen patients (4%) in the BHT group developed an infection compared with eight patients (9.5%) in the TDT group (p = 0.154). In 16 (4.5%) of all cases, postoperative computed tomography revealed catheter-induced hemorrhage.In one case (0.3%), surgery was necessary due to acute subdural hematoma. The difference between both techniques was not statistically significant (p = 0.343). In 44 (12.6%) of all cases, the position of the EVD tip was contralateral; in 36 (10.3%) of all cases, the EVD tip was in the brain parenchyma. The rate of malposition was 11.6% (n = 17) in the TDT group and 9.5% (n = 19) in the BHT group (p = 0.078). Conclusion Neither technique showed significantly different numbers in terms of infection, malposition, and hemorrhagic complications. EVD implantation using the TDT is an adequate method compared with BHT. The advantages of TDT are clear: the duration of surgery is shorter, the size of the wound is smaller, and the surgeon is not confined to the operating room.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Valencia ◽  
Benjamin Blas ◽  
Jaime H. Ortega

This study investigates the effects of different solid models on predictions of brain shift for three craniotomies. We created a generic 3D brain model based on healthy human brain and modeled the brain parenchyma as single continuum and constrained by a practically rigid skull. We have used elastic model, hyperelastic 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Ogden models, and hyperelastic Mooney-Rivlin with 2- and 5-parameter models. A pressure on the brain surface at craniotomy region was applied to load the model. The models were solved with the finite elements package ANSYS. The predictions on stress and displacements were compared for three different craniotomies. The difference between the predictions of elastic solid model and a hyperelastic Ogden solid model of maximum brain displacement and maximum effective stress is relevant.


Author(s):  
V. Deepika ◽  
T. Rajasenbagam

A brain tumor is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal brain tissue that can interfere with normal brain function. Although various methods have been developed for brain tumor classification, tumor detection and multiclass classification remain challenging due to the complex characteristics of the brain tumor. Brain tumor detection and classification are one of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks in the processing of medical images. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is a visual imaging technique, which provides a information about the soft tissues of the human body, which helps identify the brain tumor. Proper diagnosis can prevent a patient's health to some extent. This paper presents a review of various detection and classification methods for brain tumor classification using image processing techniques.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Buonfiglioli ◽  
Dolores Hambardzumyan

AbstractGlioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive and deadliest of the primary brain tumors, characterized by malignant growth, invasion into the brain parenchyma, and resistance to therapy. GBM is a heterogeneous disease characterized by high degrees of both inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity. Another layer of complexity arises from the unique brain microenvironment in which GBM develops and grows. The GBM microenvironment consists of neoplastic and non-neoplastic cells. The most abundant non-neoplastic cells are those of the innate immune system, called tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). TAMs constitute up to 40% of the tumor mass and consist of both brain-resident microglia and bone marrow-derived myeloid cells from the periphery. Although genetically stable, TAMs can change their expression profiles based upon the signals that they receive from tumor cells; therefore, heterogeneity in GBM creates heterogeneity in TAMs. By interacting with tumor cells and with the other non-neoplastic cells in the tumor microenvironment, TAMs promote tumor progression. Here, we review the origin, heterogeneity, and functional roles of TAMs. In addition, we discuss the prospects of therapeutically targeting TAMs alone or in combination with standard or newly-emerging GBM targeting therapies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1118-1123
Author(s):  
Kengo Setta ◽  
Takaaki Beppu ◽  
Yuichi Sato ◽  
Hiroaki Saura ◽  
Junichi Nomura ◽  
...  

Malignant lymphoma of the head rarely arises outside of the brain parenchyma as primary cranial vault lymphoma (PCVL). A case of PCVL that invaded from subcutaneous tissue into the brain, passing through the skull, and occurred after mild head trauma is reported along with a review of the literature. The patient was a 75-year-old man with decreased activity. One month before his visit to our hospital, he bruised the left frontal area of his head. Magnetic resonance imaging showed homogeneously enhanced tumors with contrast media in the subcutaneous tissue corresponding to the head impact area and the cerebral parenchyma, but no obvious abnormal findings in the skull. A biopsy with craniotomy was performed under general anesthesia. The pathological diagnosis was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. On histological examination, tumor cells grew aggressively under the skin. Tumor cells invaded along the emissary vein into the external table without remarkable bone destruction and extended across the skull through the Haversian canals in the diploe. Tumor cells were found only at the perivascular areas in the dura mater and extended into the brain parenchyma. Considering the history of head trauma and the neuroimaging and histological findings, the PCVL in the present case arose primarily under the skin, passed though the skull and dura mater, and invaded along vessels and reached the brain.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 957
Author(s):  
Brad T. Casali ◽  
Erin G. Reed-Geaghan

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain, deriving from yolk sac progenitors that populate the brain parenchyma during development. During development and homeostasis, microglia play critical roles in synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity, in addition to their primary role as immune sentinels. In aging and neurodegenerative diseases generally, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) specifically, microglial function is altered in ways that significantly diverge from their homeostatic state, inducing a more detrimental inflammatory environment. In this review, we discuss the receptors, signaling, regulation and gene expression patterns of microglia that mediate their phenotype and function contributing to the inflammatory milieu of the AD brain, as well as strategies that target microglia to ameliorate the onset, progression and symptoms of AD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii41-ii41
Author(s):  
Junjie Zhen ◽  
Lei Wen ◽  
Shaoqun Li ◽  
Mingyao Lai ◽  
Changguo Shan ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND According to EANO-ESMO clinical practice guidelines, the MRI findings of LM are divided into 4 types, namely linear enhancement (type A), nodular enhancement (type B), linear combined with nodular enhancement (type C), and sign of hydrocephalus (type D). METHODS The MRI features of brain and spinal cord in patients diagnosed with NSCLC-LM in Guangdong Sanjiu Brain Hospital from 2010 until 2019 were investigated, and then were classified into 4 types. The imaging features were analyzed. RESULTS A total of 80 patients were enrolled in the study. The median age of the patients was 53.5 years old, and the median time from the initial diagnosis to the confirmed diagnosis of LM was 11.6 months. The results of enhanced MRI examination of the brain in 79 cases showed that the number of cases with enhancements of type A, B, C and D were 50 (63.3%), 0, 26 (32.9%) and 3 (3.8%), respectively, and that LM with metastases to the brain parenchyma was found in 42 cases (53.2%). The results of enhanced MRI examination of spinal cord in 59 cases showed that there were only enhancements of type A and C in 40 cases (67.8%) and 3 cases (5.0%), and no enhancement sign in the other 16 cases (27.2%). CONCLUSION MRI examination of brain and spinal cord will improve the detection rate of LM. The MRI features of NSCLC-LM in real world are mainly characterized by the linear enhancements of brain and spinal cord, followed by linear combined with nodular enhancement. The enhancements of type B and type D are rare in clinic. Almost half of the patients have LM and metastases to the brain parenchyma. Therefore, the differentiation of tumor metastases is needed to be paid attention to for the early diagnosis and the formulation of reasonable treatment plans.


1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 363-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Fujimaki ◽  
J E Price ◽  
D Fan ◽  
C D Bucana ◽  
K Itoh ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred A. Baughman

All physicians attend medical school and learn of (a) all things physically normal; anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, (b) all things physically abnormal; pathology, disease, and (c) how to tell the difference. Diagnosis is the first obligation of every physician to every patient, and must precede treatment. Diagnosis first asks, “Is there a physical abnormality (physical abnormality = disorder = disease), yes or no?” Patients with no abnormality (no physical abnormality = no disorder = no disease = normal) are referred to as having “no evidence or disease” (NED) or “no organic disease” (NOD). Their problems may be psychological or psychiatric, but they are not medical or surgical. In patients found to have an abnormality, diagnosis now asks, “Which disease?” Psychiatrists are the only physicians who do not perform physical diagnosis. The absence of disease is determined for them by other physicians, usually referring physicians. In 1948 the previously conjoint specialty of neuropsychiatry was divided into neurology—responsible for the diagnosis and treatment or physical/organic disease of the nervous system—and psychiatry—responsible for the treatment of emotional and psychological problems, none of them due to organic diseases. Nor did psychiatry object to this scientific division of labor at the time. However, in the 1950s, with the advent of psychotropic drugs, psychiatry, increasingly in league with the pharmaceutical industry, began referring to psychological diagnoses as disorders/diseases/chemical imbalances of the brain, albeit with no proof or science. In a congressional hearing in 1970, psychiatrists and federal officials, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, represented hyperkinetic disorder (HKD) to be a disorder/disease of the brain leading to the appropriation of millions of dollars for research, diagnosis and treatment into the drug treatment of school children said to have the new disease HKD. HKD became ADD, then ADHD, a disorder/disease/chemical imbalance always in need of a “chemical balancer”—a pill. Without proof of an abnormality/disorder/disease, the ADHD epidemic grew from 150,000 in 1970 to 6 million to 7 million today, the most common childhood diagnosis in the United States, a multi-billion dollar industry, and a model for all 374 DSM–IV psychological/psychiatric diagnoses—none of them actual diseases. As such, psychiatry is not a legitimate branch of medicine deserving scientific-fiscal parity; rather, collectively, it is the greatest health care fraud in history. Every time a so-called chemical imbalance is diagnosed, a patient’s right to informed consent has been abrogated. Every time a medically normal person is treated with a psychotropic chemical balancer—a pill—their first and only abnormality is the iatrogenic intoxication: poisoning.


Parasitology ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. Neill ◽  
N. H. Hunt

SUMMARYCBA/T6 and DBA/2J mice inoculated withPlasmodium bergheiANKA (PbA) develop cerebral involvement 6–8 days post-inoculation, from which the CBA mice almost invariably die and the DBA mice recover. Dexamethasone (DXM; 80 mg/kg) given to inoculated CBA mice twice, on day 3 and again within 48 h, reduced the cerebral symptoms and prevented death from cerebral malaria. Plasma tumour necrosis factor (TNF) levels, which increased at the time of the cerebral symptoms, were also reduced in these DXM-treated mice. Intravenously administered Evans Blue, a dye which binds to albumin, diffused extensively across the blood-brain barrier only during the period of cerebral symptoms, in proportion to the severity of the cerebral symptoms and the disease. In PbA-infected CBA mice, cerebral symptoms and the amount of Evans Blue diffusing into the brain tissue were both reduced by DXM treatment, but only if the steroid was given on day 3 and again within 48 h. Endotoxin injected intravascularly into PbA-infected DBA mice after day 5 resulted in an exaggeration of cerebral symptoms and death between days 6 and 9. Plasma TNF and the amount of Evans Blue in the brain parenchyma increased above normal levels in these mice. Endotoxin injections had only minor effects on the severity of the cerebral symptoms in PbA-infected CBA mice and did not cause the animals to die sooner.


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