Thorax injury remains a primary contributor to mortality in car crash scenarios. Although human body models can be used to investigate thorax response to impact, isolated rib models have not been able to predict age- and sex-specific force-displacement response and fracture location simultaneously, which is a critical step towards developing human thorax models able to accurately predict injury response. Recent advancements in constitutive models and quantification of age- and sex-specific material properties, cross-sectional area, and cortical bone thickness distribution offer opportunities to improve rib computational models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPredicting and understanding thorax injury is fundamental for the assessment and development of safety systems to mitigate injury risk to the increasing and vulnerable aged population. While computational human models have contributed to the understanding of injury biomechanics, contemporary human body models have struggled to predict rib fractures and explain the increased incidence of injury in the aged population. The present study enhanced young and aged human body models (HBMs) by integrating a biofidelic cortical bone constitutive model and population-based bone material properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComputational human body models (HBMs) can identify potential injury pathways not easily accessible through experimental studies, such as whiplash induced injuries. However, previous computational studies investigating neck response to simulated impact conditions have neglected the effect of pre-impact neck posture and muscle pre-tension on the intervertebral kinematics and tissue-level response. The purpose of the present study was addressing this knowledge gap using a detailed neck model subjected to simulated low-acceleration rear impact conditions, towards improved intervertebral kinematics and soft tissue response for injury assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe combined dyslipidaemia that accompanies the nephrotic syndrome increases the cardiovascular risk and appears to worsen long-term renal function. Our aim was to determine the efficacy and safety of 10 mg atorvastatin in the control of dyslipidaemia in these patients. We carried out a prospective, open, 6 month study of 10 patients with primary or secondary nephrotic syndrome (proteinuria >3.
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