Modeling of inflicted head injury by shaking trauma in children: what can we learn? : Update to parts I&II: A systematic review of animal, mathematical and physical models.

Inflicted shaking trauma can cause injury in infants, but exact injury mechanisms remain unclear. Controversy exists, particularly in courts, whether additional causes such as impact are required to produce injuries found in cases of (suspected) shaking. Publication rates of studies on animal and biomechanical models of inflicted head injury by shaking trauma (IHI-ST) in infants continue rising.

Contactless Size Reference in Forensic Photography-Design and Verification of the Novel FreeRef-1 System.

In photographs of evidence in forensic investigations, physical size references (e.g., rulers or stickers) are often placed next to a trace to allow us to take measurements from photos.

Generic surgical process model for minimally invasive liver treatment methods.

Surgical process modelling is an innovative approach that aims to simplify the challenges involved in improving surgeries through quantitative analysis of a well-established model of surgical activities. In this paper, surgical process model strategies are applied for the analysis of different Minimally Invasive Liver Treatments (MILTs), including ablation and surgical resection of the liver lesions. Moreover, a generic surgical process model for these differences in MILTs is introduced.

Violent Infant Surrogate Shaking: Continuous High-Magnitude Centripetal Force and Abrupt Shift in Tangential Acceleration May Explain High Risk of Subdural Hemorrhage.

Violent shaking is believed to be a common mechanism of injury in pediatric abusive head trauma. Typical intracranial injuries include subdural and retinal hemorrhages. Using a laboratory surrogate model we conducted experiments evaluating the head motion patterns that may occur in violent shaking.

Lethal smothering with a pillow - How 181 music festival visitors tried to kill a dummy.

Purpose: Smothering to death is most often done with a soft cover, such as a pillow. This is one of the hardest to diagnose causes of death. Knowing more about how people perform such an act and whether there is any correlation between perpetrator characteristics and smothering approaches may help in solving criminal cases involving smothering.

Thresholds for the assessment of inflicted head injury by shaking trauma in infants: a systematic review.

In order to investigate potential causal relations between the shaking of infants and injuries, biomechanical studies compare brain and skull dynamic behavior during shaking to injury thresholds. However, performing shaking tolerance research on infants, either in vivo or ex vivo, is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, infant injury thresholds are usually estimated by scaling or extrapolating adult or animal data obtained from crash tests or whiplash experiments.

Minimizing aerosol bone dust during autopsies.

When sawing bone for medical or medico-legal procedures, fine, airborne dust is produced (aerosols) that can pose a health hazard when inhaled. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of saw blade frequency and contact load, bone condition, test environment, and saw blade type, on the production of aerosol particles. A custom test setup was designed, manufactured and used in 8 bone sawing experiments, using a particle counter to determine the production of aerosol particles while varying the 5 chosen parameters.

Independent root-cause analysis of contributing factors, including dismantling of 2 duodenoscopes, to investigate an outbreak of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Background And Aims: Worldwide, an increasing number of duodenoscope-associated outbreaks are reported. The high prevalence rate of contaminated duodenoscopes puts patients undergoing ERCP at risk of exogenous transmission of microorganisms. The contributing factors of the duodenoscope design to contamination are not well understood.

The influence of contact force on forensic trace collection efficiency when sampling textiles with adhesive tape.

Purpose: DNA is a highly valuable lead to identify people who were possibly involved in a crime. Even by small contact events, minute amounts of DNA ('trace DNA') can be transferred from a DNA source to an evidentiary item, which can be enough for a successful DNA analysis. The focus of this research is to get more insight in the collection of trace DNA from textiles by 'stubbing', which is a tape-lifting method using double-sided tape placed on a stub.

Surgical process modelling strategies: which method to choose for determining workflow?

The vital role of surgeries in healthcare requires a constant attention to improvement. Surgical process modelling is an innovative and rather recently introduced approach for tackling the issues in today's complex surgeries. This modelling field is very challenging and still under development, therefore, it is not always clear which modelling strategy would best fit the needs in which situations.

Modeling of inflicted head injury by shaking trauma in children: what can we learn? : Part I: A systematic review of animal models.

Inflicted blunt force trauma and/or repetitive acceleration-deceleration trauma in infants can cause brain injury. Yet, the exact pathophysiologic mechanism with its associated thresholds remains unclear. In this systematic review an overview of animal models for shaking trauma and their findings on tissue damage will be provided.

Modeling of inflicted head injury by shaking trauma in children: what can we learn? : Part II: A systematic review of mathematical and physical models.

Various types of complex biomechanical models have been published in the literature to better understand processes related to inflicted head injury by shaking trauma (IHI-ST) in infants. In this systematic review, a comprehensive overview of these models is provided. A systematic review was performed in MEDLINE and Scopus for articles using physical (e.

Aerosol production during autopsies: The risk of sawing in bone.

When sawing during autopsies on human remains, fine dust is produced, which consists of particles of sizes that may fall within the human respirable range, and can act as vectors for pathogens. The goal of this study was to explore the potential effects of saw blade frequency and saw blade contact load on the number and size of airborne bone particles produced. The methodology involved the use of an oscillating saw with variable saw blade frequencies and different saw blade contact loads on dry human femora.

Comparison between pulse wave velocities measured using Complior and measured using Biopac.

Arterial stiffness is a reliable prognostic parameter for cardiovascular diseases. The effect of change in arterial stiffness can be measured by the change of the pulse wave velocity (PWV). The Complior system is widely used to measure PWV between the carotid and radial arteries by means of piezoelectric clips placed around the neck and the wrist.

Increasing accuracy of pulse transit time measurements by automated elimination of distorted photoplethysmography waves.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a widely available non-invasive optical technique to visualize pressure pulse waves (PWs). Pulse transit time (PTT) is a physiological parameter that is often derived from calculations on ECG and PPG signals and is based on tightly defined characteristics of the PW shape. PPG signals are sensitive to artefacts.

Workflow and intervention times of MR-guided focused ultrasound - Predicting the impact of new techniques.

Magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) has become an attractive, non-invasive treatment for benign and malignant tumours, and offers specific benefits for poorly accessible locations in the liver. However, the presence of the ribcage and the occurrence of liver motion due to respiration limit the applicability MRgFUS. Several techniques are being developed to address these issues or to decrease treatment times in other ways.

Effect of heat-induced pain stimuli on pulse transit time and pulse wave amplitude in healthy volunteers.

Pain is commonly assessed subjectively by interpretations of patient behaviour and/or reports from patients. When this is impossible the availability of a quantitative objective pain assessment tool based on objective physiological parameters would greatly benefit clinical practice and research beside the standard self-report tests. Vasoconstriction is one of the physiological responses to pain.

Withdrawal of a novel-design duodenoscope ends outbreak of a VIM-2-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Background And Study Aims: Infections are a recognized risk of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). This paper reports on a large outbreak of VIM-2-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa that was linked to the use of a recently introduced duodenoscope with a specific modified design (Olympus TJF-Q180V).

Methods: Epidemiological investigations and molecular typing were executed in order to identify the source of the outbreak.

An integrated model-based software for FUS in moving abdominal organs.

Focused ultrasound surgery (FUS) is a non-invasive method for tissue ablation that has the potential for complete and controlled local tumour destruction with minimal side effects. The treatment of abdominal organs such as the liver, however, requires particular technological support in order to enable a safe, efficient and effective treatment. As FUS is applied from outside the patient's body, suitable imaging methods, such as magnetic resonance imaging or diagnostic ultrasound, are needed to guide and track the procedure.

A novel ultrasound technique for detection of osteochondral defects in the ankle joint: a parametric and feasibility study.

(Osteo)chondral defects (OCDs) in the ankle are currently diagnosed with modalities that are not convenient to use in long-term follow-ups. Ultrasound (US) imaging, which is a cost-effective and non-invasive alternative, has limited ability to discriminate OCDs. We aim to develop a new diagnostic technique based on US wave propagation through the ankle joint.

Mechanical analysis of insertion problems and pain during colonoscopy: why highly skill-dependent colonoscopy routines are necessary in the first place... and how they may be avoided.

Background: Colonoscopy requires highly skill-dependent manoeuvres that demand a significant amount of training, and can cause considerable discomfort to patients, which increases the use of sedatives. Understanding the underlying fundamental mechanics behind insertion difficulties and pain during colonoscopy may help to simplify colonoscopy and reduce the required extent of training and reliance on sedatives.

Methods: A literature search, anatomical studies, models of the colon and colonoscope, and bench tests were used to qualitatively analyze the fundamental mechanical causes of insertion difficulties and pain.