Predictive Factors of Kinematics in Traumatic Brain Injury from Head Impacts Based on Statistical Interpretation

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is thought to be caused by repetitive head impacts. Consequently, there is a need to develop rodent models to better understand the behavioral and pathophysiological changes of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (rmTBI) and to determine the link between rmTBI and CTE. This Neuro Forum article reviews recent rodent rmTBI models, comparing the impact methods and outcome measures in terms of translational potential.

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Predictive Factors for Fatality After Traumatic Brain Injury Among Road Traffic Crash Victims in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

10.21203/rs.3.rs-956900/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zuriyash Mengistu ◽

Ahmed Ali ◽

Teferi Abegaz

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Predictive Factors ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Addis Ababa ◽

Road Traffic Crash ◽

Cluster Sampling ◽

Traffic Crash ◽

Brain Injured ◽

Injured Patients

Abstract Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the common preventable causes of mortality and disability among road traffic victims worldwide, most especially in low- and middle-income countries, including Ethiopia. Objective to determine risk factors of mortality after traumatic brain injury due to road traffic crash. Methods This study aimed to examine the predictive factors of short-term mortality after severe brain injury due to a road traffic crash. The study was done on a prospective cohort of 242 severely brain-injured patients selected using cluster sampling in Addis Ababa City hospitals. The study was conducted from February 2018 to November 2019. Data were collected from brain-injured patients using a questionnaire and recorded findings within the first 24 hours of admission, Survival Analysis was used for statistical analysis. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB). Confidentiality of information about injured patients was maintained. Results In this study, the death rate was 73(30.2%). The majority of TBI patients accounting for, 186(81%) were men. The median age of TBI patients was 29 years. The hazard for those patients with subnormal body temperature was 1.64 times that of normal temperature (AHR: 1.64; CI: 2.14-10.29). The estimated fatality hazard ratio for patients who experienced Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)below six was 5.61 times higher compared to GCS six to eight (CI:3.1-10.24). Conclusion In conclusion, there was high early mortality of patients (30.2%) in Ethiopia. Being men, young and lower GCS were associated with higher mortality hazards. Hence, optimum advanced neuro-surgical pre-hospital care programs are urgently needed.

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Integration of Biomarkers Into a Signature Profile of Persistent Traumatic Brain Injury Involving Autoimmune Processes Following Water Hammer Injury From Repetitive Head Impacts

Biomarker Insights ◽

10.1177/1177271918808216 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 ◽

pp. 117727191880821 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Steven Kornguth ◽

Neal Rutledge

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Inflammatory Responses ◽

Vascular Malformations ◽

Water Hammer ◽

Host Factors ◽

Time Interval ◽

Head Impacts ◽

Autoimmune Processes ◽

Biochemical Analyses

Objectives: To assemble an algorithm that will describe a “Signature” predictive of an individual’s vulnerability to persistent traumatic brain injury (TBI) Subjects and Methods: Studies of athletes and warriors who are subjected to repeated head impacts with rapid acceleration/deceleration forces are used to assist in the diagnosis and management of TBI-affected individuals. Data from multiple areas, including clinical, anatomical, magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive function, and biochemical analyses, are integrated to provide a Signature of persistent TBI. Results: Studies to date indicate that susceptibility to TBI results from an interaction between host genetic and structural vulnerability factors and force and torque of impact on the head and torso. The host factors include molecular markers affecting immune and inflammatory responses to stress/insult as well as anatomical features such as the degree of transcortical fiber projections and vascular malformations. The host response to forceful impact includes the release of intracellular neural proteins and nucleic acids into the cerebrospinal fluid and vascular compartment as well as mobilization of cytokines and macrophages into the central nervous system with subsequent activation of microglia and inflammatory responses including autoimmune processes. Maximum impact to the base of the sulci via a “water hammer effect” is consistent with the localization of microvascular and inflammatory responses in the affected brain region. Conclusions: An assessment of an individuals’ predisposition to persistent TBI with delayed cognitive deficits and behavioral changes requires an understanding of host vulnerability (genetic factors and brain structure) and external stressors (force and torque of impact as well as repetitive head injury and time interval between impacts). An algorithm that has utility in predicting vulnerability to TBI will include qualitative and quantitative measures of the host factors weighted against post impact markers of neural injury. Implementation of the resulting “Signature” of vulnerability at early stages of injury will help inform athletes and warriors, along with commanders and management, of the risk/benefit approaches that will markedly diminish health care costs to the nation and suffering to this population. This report attempts to define a strategy to create such an algorithm.

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Consider the woodpecker: The contested more-than-human ethics of biomimetic technology and traumatic brain injury

Social Studies of Science ◽

10.1177/03063127211052513 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 030631272110525

Author(s):

Gregory Hollin

Keyword(s):

Traumatic Brain Injury ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Science And Technology Studies ◽

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ◽

American Football ◽

Head Impacts ◽

The Status ◽

Human Ethics ◽

The One ◽

Interspecies Relations

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a neurodegenerative disease caused by traumatic brain injury and most frequently associated with contact sports such as American Football. Perhaps surprisingly, the woodpecker – an animal apparently immune to the effects of head impacts – has increasingly figured into debates surrounding CTE. On the one hand, the woodpecker is described as being contra-human and used to underscore the radical inappropriateness of humans playing football. On the other, there have been attempts to mitigate against the risk of CTE through the creation of biomimetic technologies inspired by woodpeckers. In this article I examine the highly politicized encounters between humans and woodpeckers and discuss how the politics of re-/dis-/en-tanglement during these interspecies relations is rendered meaningful. I show here, first, that those who seek to keep the human and the woodpecker apart envisage social overhaul while biomimetic technologies are put to work for the status quo. Second, I stress that different forms of entanglement have diverse sociopolitical consequences. I conclude by suggesting that the case of the woodpecker troubles a strand of contemporary scholarship in Science and Technology Studies that argues that biotechnologies are inherently transformatory and that foregrounding entanglement and interspecies relations is ethically generative. Instead, a discursive separation of nature and culture may be innovative.

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