Posts from ‘Govt/Military’
Spinal Cord Injury and Afghanistan
Military medical officials have expressed concern over an increase in spinal injuries among U.S. troops coming home from Afghanistan. Afghan insurgents have responded to the increased presence of heavily armored U.S. vehicles with larger and more powerful roadside explosives.
Roadside bombs have become the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only do the roadside bombs lead to crushed spines and other spinal injuries, they also result in traumatic brain injuries when soldiers are exposed to blasts, even with no impact to the head.
A USA Today story reported that the recent increase in spinal injuries occurred among soldiers in Afghanistan and not Iraq. The increase in spinal cord injuries among troops has arisen due to increased potency in roadside bombs used by insurgents. The U.S. Military issued 3500 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles as an attempt to deal with the roadside bombings. Unfortunately, Afghanistan insurgents responded with stronger and larger bombs.
Some of the 3500 MRAP vehicles deployed in Afghanistan have been lifted a few feet off the ground by roadside bomb explosions. Even though the MRAP vehicle may remain intact, some soldiers have suffered serious spinal cord injuries in the explosions. The MRAP vehicles cost about $1.4 million.
Medical professionals and Army engineers are comparing data to explore possible alterations and improvements to the MRAP vehicle design to make it safer for soldiers who are exposed to increasing roadside bomb possibilities. The MRAP vehicles, which cost about $1.4 million to make, have a hull designed in a V-shape, which helps to deflect the force of explosions away from the center of the vehicle, the USA Today article reported.
Since there are very few paved roads in Afghanistan, rebels can easily bury roadside explosives in the dirt roads, undetectable to soldiers driving along the roads at high speeds. Although the military has recently send over newer and lighter MRAP vehicles with better seating and harnesses, more improvements are still in the works to ensure the vehicles are safe for combat.
Doctors are matching up data on injuries with the victims’ positions in the vehicles at the time of the explosion and the vehicle type in which the accident occurred. Their hope is that engineers will be able to use the data to design more explosion-proof MRAP vehicles and to prevent any further incidence of spinal cord injuries if possible. USA Today reported that a doctor in Kandahar is currently at work designing a shock-absorbing seat that would provide a better guard against spinal cord injuries.
References:
- Zoroya, Gregg. (November 5, 2009). “Spinal Injuries Up Among Troops.” Retrieved December 6, 2009 from the USA Today website: http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2009-11-04-1Aied04_ST_U.htm?csp=34
Soldiers returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq suffering from a high rate of traumatic brain injury due to exposure to explosive blasts have prompted research projects to determine exactly how brain injury occurs during an explosion in which direct impact to the head does not occur.
Researchers from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Washington D.C. recently conducted research in which they ran DTI scans on soldiers ranging from completely healthy to those who suffered direct head impacts, acceleration brain injuries, and finally, nonlethal explosive blasts.
Previously, MRI and CT scans were proven ineffective at revealing and diagnosing concussions. However, researchers have recently made use of DTI scans to detect neurological damage on the level of the neural networks connecting brain cells, which scientists call the brain’s “white matter.”
The recent research using DTI scans showed “a more diffuse pattern of damage to the white matter,” in those soldiers who had experienced non-impact brain injury from close proximity to explosions. This research demonstrates conclusively that soldiers near an explosion can indeed suffer brain damage even without any physical impact.
Common concussions arise from direct impact to the skull and from acceleration injuries as in automobile accidents. Brain injuries from explosions can cause impact and acceleration injuries, as well as a wave of rapid pressure that puts even more sudden, but invisible, impact on the brain itself.
Scientists also discovered signs of inflammation in brains exposed to explosive blast shockwaves, many months after the initial injury occurred. Another team of researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency found signs of brain injury in the blood, even when no other signs of injury showed up.
DTI scans, while promising in brain research, still has limits. Soldiers with shrapnel in their body are unable to undergo MRI and DTI scans due to the powerful magnetic fields inherent to the scans. Researchers hope to vastly expand the available tools for more effective and efficient diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries, especially those due to close proximity to explosive blasts.
The U.S. military is increasingly interested in understanding and more efficiently treating blast-induced brain injuries, as between 10-20% of the soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan return with concussions from explosive blasts. Military and health officials hope to see further expansion of research and treatment built upon the foundation of current research and knowledge of traumatic brain injury.
(pic from military.com)
Brain researchers at Boston University and the Sports Legacy Institute in Massachusetts are conducting studies to explore potential links between brain dysfunction in combat veterans and similar cognitive decline experienced by football players.
Researchers posit that combat veterans who experience symptoms of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) may have sustained severe damage to their brains, not from physical damage, but from shockwaves caused by explosions.
The research teams are looking for specific kinds of long-term brain damage signified by the build up of toxic proteins and neurofibrillary tangles, which do not show up in CT scans and MRIs. In order to gather the necessary data, the scientists must collect and analyze the donated brains of more than 20 combat veterans.
They will compare their findings with data on brain damage in football players’ brains to investigate how forces from bomb blasts can lead to physical brain damage, even in the absence of physical impacts to the head.
This research on the brains of military personnel promises to shed some light on the mystery of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as well as other mental and emotional struggles of veterans long after their tours of duty.
The study was inspired by the observation that many of the symptoms of PTSD and cognitive dysfunction in veterans were similar to those experienced by football players who had sustained repeated head impact over their careers.
By comparing the actual brains of veterans and football players, the two research institutes hope to discover the nature of the physical damage sustained by soldiers in non-impact explosions.
If the institutes do prove that shockwaves from explosions cause physical brain damage, combat veterans could be rewarded not only purple hearts, which are currently given only to soldiers injured physically in battle, but also proper recognition, expanded disability benefits and more advantageous treatment of their conditions.
While the focus remains on the brains of combat veterans, the benefits of such studies may ripple out into the general population in the form of greater knowledge of how the brain responds to trauma and injury and possible treatments for resulting conditions.
Even though the scientists are eager to continue their research, it advances slowly due in part to the difficulty and sensitivity involved in collecting brains from donors upon their deaths.
Boston University and the Sports Legacy Institute are paying for the studies, and while the U.S. military supports them, they have not yet contributed to the research financially.
Image from here.
This week’s resource is the Website America’s Heroes at Work.
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) created this site in order to address the “employment challenges of returning service members living with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and/or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).”
Due to the U.S.’s continued military presence in Iraq, we have seen a lot of attention paid to the increasing numbers of soldiers returning with head injuries from bomb blasts. These injuries are often hard to detect and too many times go unreported.
Luckily, both for the soldiers and for civilians who have sustained brain injuries, there has been a correlating increase in research into preventing and curing traumatic brain injuries (TBI)…
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are helping U.S. soldiers with early detection and timely treatment of traumatic brain injuries.
A prototype software has been designed to “integrate in real time data provided by medics on the battlefield with information from the patient’s electronic medical record, filter them through a template and present a visualization over a network to a physician in a remote location who could then diagnose TBI and direct treatment.”
The Army has issued new guidelines for traumatic brain injury care with the intention of catching and treating early symptoms. According to Kelly Kennedy, staff writer for ArmyTimes, this will also help catch soldiers who memorize the TBI tests in order to remain on the field by passing the concussion indicators test…
Now it looks like even Russia is getting on board with the UN push for official disability rights. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Russia has much to do still, if they are to fully implement the UN’s provisions, but that their experts are helping develop the convention and the legislation.
Putin admits that Russia towns ans cities are poorly equipped to properly assist those with disabilities, whether it be with transportation or jobs. He believes that signing the Convention “will be a move forward on this track.”
Interesting that Russia is willing to move forward on this and yet the US still refuses to sign.
According to an article by Carlos Mayorga in the The Salt Lake Tribune, a new fund has been created for Utah residents who have suffered a traumatic brain injury. This financial assistance is intended to be used in the training of medical personnel and for medical expenses that programs such as Medicaid don’t cover.
According to Mayorga, more than 2,500 new brain injuries are sustained every year in Utah. With this short-term funding, those who have been unable to receive proper treatment stand a better chance. So far there have been private contributions to the fund, so the hope is that after the initial one-time government contribution of $50,000 runs out, either the government will provide more or they will continue to receive donations.
Hopefully more progressive policies will come out of Utah’s move towards supporting the often ignore TBI population.
With the use of brain-imaging technology that uses MEG technology (magnetoencephalography), physicians at an Elk Grove Village hospital are hoping to determine if combat veterans are suffering from undiagnosed traumatic brain injuries.
This “magnetic stethoscope” picks up magnetic signals that are produced by the brain when it is exposed to visual or auditory stimuli. This will help doctors determine whether vets who have PTSD also have a TBI as those signals differ when patients have one from when they have both.
According to the Chicago Tribune article, this technology will help patients receive proper treatment for the biological factors involved in PTSD and TBI.
