BLAST-INDUCED CEREBROVASCULAR AND BRAIN INJURY: THE THORACIC MECHANISM

Abstract

The focus of this dissertation was the biomechanics of blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). This study had three specific aims. One of the specific aims was to investigate the thoracic mechanism of bTBI by characterizing the cerebral blood pressure change during local blast exposure to head or chest in a rat model. This model utilized a shock tube to simulate the blast wave. The results showed that there is a blood pressure rise with high amplitude and short duration during both Head-Only and Chest-Only exposure conditions. It was shown that cerebral blood pressure rise was significantly higher in Chest-Only exposure, and resulted in astrocyte reactivation, and infiltration of blood-borne macrophages into the brain. It was concluded that due to chest exposure to a blast wave, high amplitude pressure waves that transfer from thoracic large vessels to cerebrovasculature can lead to blood-brain barrier disruption or perivascular injury and consequently trigger secondary neuronal damage. The second and third aims were related to the viscoelasticity and heterogeneity of brain tissue respectively for blast rate loading conditions. For the second specific aim, a novel test method was developed to apply shear deformation to samples of brain tissue with strain rates in the range of 300 to 1000 s-1. The results of shear tests on cylindrical samples of bovine brain showed that the instantaneous shear modulus (about 6 kPa) increased about 3 times compared to the values reported in the literature. For the third specific aim, local viscoelastic behavior of rat brain was characterized using a micro-indentation setup with the spatial resolution of 350 mm. The results of micro-indentation tests showed that the heterogeneity of brain tissue was more pronounced in long-term shear moduli. Moreover, the inner anatomical regions were generally more compliant than the outer regions and the gray matter generally exhibited a stiffer response than the white matter. The results of this study can enhance the prediction of brain injury in finite element models of TBI in general and models of bTBI in particular. These results contribute to development of more biofidelic models that can determine the extent and severity of injury in blast loadings. Such predictions are essential for designing better injury mitigation devices for soldiers and also for improving neurosurgical procedures among other applications.