Cyclic Head Rotations Produce Modest Brain Injury in Infant Piglets

Details

• Personal Author:
  Binenbaum, Gil ; Christian, Cindy W. ; Coats, Brittany ; Duhaime, Ann-Christine ; Margulies, Susan S. ; Peiffer, Robert L. ; Smith, Colin
• Description:
  Repetitive back-and-forth head rotation from vigorous shaking is purported to be a central mechanism responsible for diffuse white matter injury, subdural hemorrhage, and retinal hemorrhage in some cases of abusive head trauma (AHT) in young children. Although animal studies have identified mechanisms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) associated with single rapid head acceleration-decelerations at levels experienced in a motor vehicle crash, few experimental studies have investigated TBI from repetitive head rotations. The objective of this study was to systematically investigate the post-injury pathological time-course after cyclic, low-velocity head rotations in the piglet and compare them with single head rotations. Injury metrics were the occurrence and extent of axonal injury (AI), extra-axial hemorrhage (EAH), red cell neuronal/axonal change (RCNAC), and ocular injury (OI). Hyperflexion/extension of the neck were purposefully avoided in the study, resulting in unscaled angular accelerations at the lower end of reported infant surrogate shaking kinematics. All findings were at the mild end of the injury spectrum, with no significant findings at 6 h post-injury. Cyclic head rotations, however, produced modest AI that significantly increased with time post-injury (p < 0.035) and had significantly greater amounts of RCNAC and EAH than noncyclic head rotations after 24 h post-injury (p < 0.05). No OI was observed. Future studies should investigate the contributions of additional physiological and mechanical features associated with AHT (e.g., hyperflexion/extension, increased intracranial pressure from crying or thoracic compression, and more than two cyclic episodes) to enhance our understanding of the causality between proposed mechanistic factors and AHT in infants. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Animals Biomechanical Phenomena Nervous System Occupational Health Safety Violence
• Keywords:
  Abuse Animal Studies Author Keywords: Abusive Head Trauma Biomechanical Modeling Biomechanics Brain Matter Children Head Injuries Neurological System Neuropathology Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Shaken Baby Syndrome TBI Traumatic Brain Injury

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• ISSN:
  0897-7151
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8 ; Pennsylvania ; Utah
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  13 pdf pages
• Volume:
  34
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067292
• Citation:
  J Neurotrauma 2017 Jan; 34(1):235-247
• Contact Point Address:
  Brittany Coats, PhD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 1495 E. 100 Street, 2157 MEK, Salt Lake City, UT 84112
• Email:
  brittany.coats@utah.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  University of Utah
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Neurotrauma
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:03375cb0d03f77058be0f459f9903cfe49e051daea82c5e6008e5be10801712dd0703889465e9591bd80915f7244c277d01b618a99d269d96631e60b2368bafb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230796/cdc_230796_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 658.58 KB ]