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Title:: The effects of head size and geometry on brain injury index in children during head rotation

Author(s):: LI Bei; Ruan Shijie; LI Haiyan; CUI Shihai; HE Lijuan; Center for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin300222, China

Keywords:: Finite element head model; Size; Geometry; Maximum principal strain; Cumulative strain damage measure

摘要:: 外伤性脑损伤(traumatic brain injury ,TBI)是引起儿童致死致残的主要原因，许多研究借助有限元方法探讨头部跌落过程中儿童颅骨的损伤风险，但少有研究侧重于儿童脑损伤及其损伤机理。作为儿童脑损伤的初步研究，有必要基于生物仿真度较高的人类头部有限元模型，首先考虑头部尺寸和几何形状对脑组织生物力学响应的影响。因此,本研究基于由天津科技大学开发的第50百分位成人、6岁儿童和3岁儿童头部有限元模型，重构了NFL(national football league，NFL)头部碰撞试验，推导出不同年龄的头部在形状和尺寸方面的差异，以及这些差异对脑组织损伤指标的影响。结果表明，脑组织最大主应变和累积应变损伤测量(cumulative strain damage measure，CSDM)随头部尺寸的增大而增大，但与头部几何形状不敏感。本研究作为儿童脑损伤的基础研究，全面阐述了开发儿童头部有限元模型研究儿童脑损伤的重要性。

Abstract:: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability among the young pediatric population. To date, finite element (FE) model was gradually used to investigate child skull fracture risk under drop impact conditions, however, only a few studies focused on pediatric brain injury and injury mechanism. As a first step, it is necessary to analyze the biomechanical response of brain injury which requires elaboration of biofidelic models that take into account child’s head particularities in terms of size and geometry. In this study,based on the head finite element models of the 50th percentile adult, 6-year-old and 3-year-old child developed by Tianjin University of Science and Technology,we simulated real-world head trauma national football league(NFL) in order to derive the differenecs of the differently aged heads structurally and dimensionally,and the effects of the differences on the brain injury index.The results showed an increase of maximum principal strain and cumulative strain damage measure(CSDM) with the increase of the FE head FE model size.While there was no significant interaction with head geometry.This study provides a fundamental study to better understand the importance of developing an age-appropriate head model for brain injury studies in the pediatric population.