A METHOD TO CALCULATE THE AIS TRAUMA SCORE FROM A FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

In the real world, traumatic injuries are measured using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), however, such a scale cannot be computed to date or the injury precisely located by using human computer models. These models use stresses and strains to evaluate whether serious or fatal injuries are reached, which unfortunately bear no direct relation to AIS. This paper proposes to overcome this deficiency and suggests a unique Organ Trauma Model (OTM) able to calculate the risk to life of any organ injury, focussing in this case on real-life pedestrian head injuries. The OTM uses a power method, named Peak Virtual Power (PVP), and defines a brain white and gray matters trauma response as a function of impact direction and impact speed. The OTM was tested against four real-life pedestrian accidents and proved to predict the head trauma severity and location. In some cases, the method did however under-estimate the trauma by 1 AIS level because of post-impact haemorrhage which cannot be captured with Lagrangian Finite Element solvers. The OTM has the potential to create an important advance in vehicle safety by adding more information on the risk of head trauma.

Dual forms of aging-related NADPH diaphorase neurodegeneration in the sacral spinal cord of aged non-human primates

We discovered two different anomalous NADPH diaphorase (NADPH-d) positive alterations, which were expressed as aging-related NADPH-d positive spheroidal bodies and megaloneurites specially distributed in the superficial dorsal horn, dorsal gray commissure (DGC), lateral collateral pathway (LCP) and sacral parasympathetic nucleus (SPN) in the aged monkeys’ sacral spinal cord, compared with the cervical, thoracic and lumbar segments. In the gracile nucleus of aged monkeys, only aging-related spheroidal bodies were observed and no megaloneurites occurred. The dense, abnormal NADPH-d positive megaloneurites, extremely different from regular NADPH-d positive fibers, were prominent in the sacral segments and occurred in extending from Lissauer’s tract (LT) through lamina I along the lateral boundary of the dorsal horn to the region of the SPN. Meanwhile, large diameter punctate NADPH-d activity occurred and scattered in the lateral white matter of the LCP and dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) at the same level of NADPH-d abnormality in the gray matters. Those dot-like NADPH-d alterations were examined by horizontal sectioning and indicated ascending or descending oriental fibers. These NADPH-d megaloneurites had the same composition as the punctate NADPH-d alterations and were co-localized with the VIP immunoreaction, while the ANBs did not coexist with the VIP immunoreaction. Both ANBs and megaloneurites provide consistent evidence that the anomalous neuritic alterations in the aged sacral spinal cord are referred to as a specialized aging marker in the pelvic visceral organs in non-human primates.

Tau imaging detects distinctive distribution of tau pathology in ALS/PDC on the Kii Peninsula

ObjectiveTo characterize the distribution of tau pathology in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism dementia complex on the Kii Peninsula (Kii ALS/PDC) by tau PET using [11C]PBB3 as ligand.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study of 5 patients with ALS/PDC and one asymptomatic participant with a dense family history of ALS/PDC from the Kii Peninsula who took part in this study. All were men, and their age was 76 ± 8 (mean ± SD) years. Thirteen healthy men (69 ± 6 years) participated as healthy controls (HCs). Dynamic PET scans were performed following injection of [11C]PBB3, and parametric PET images were generated by voxel-by-voxel calculation of binding potential (BP*ND) using a multilinear reference tissue model. [11C] Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) PET, MRI, and cognitive tests were also performed.ResultsA voxel-based comparison of [11C]PBB3 BP*ND illustrated PET-detectable tau deposition in the cerebral cortex and white matter, and pontine basis including the corticospinal tract in Kii ALS/PDC patients compared with HCs (uncorrected p < 0.05). Group-wise volume of interest analysis of [11C]PBB3 BP*ND images showed increased BP*ND in the hippocampus and in frontal and parietal white matters of Kii ALS/PDC patients relative to HCs (p < 0.05, Holm-Sidak multiple comparisons test). BP*ND in frontal, temporal, and parietal gray matters correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination scores in Kii ALS/PDC patients (p < 0.05). All Kii ALS/PDC patients were negative for [11C]PiB (β-amyloid) except one with marginal positivity.Conclusion[11C]PBB3 PET visualized the characteristic topography of tau pathology in Kii ALS/PDC, corresponding to clinical phenotypes of this disease.