Functional outcomes of thoracic injuries in pediatric and adult occupants.

Objective: To develop a disability metric for motor vehicle crash (MVC) thoracic injuries and compare functional outcomes between pediatric and adult populations.

Methods: Disability risk (DR) was quantified using Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores within the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) for the top 95% most frequently occurring AIS 2, 3, 4, and 5 thoracic injuries in NASS-CDS 2000-2011. The NTDB contains a truncated form of the FIM score, including three items (self-feed, locomotion, and verbal expression), each graded from full functional dependence to full functional independence.

Functional outcomes of motor vehicle crash thoracic injuries in pediatric and adult occupants.

Objective: Characterization of the severity of injury should account for both mortality and disability. The objective of this study was to develop a disability metric for thoracic injuries in motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) and compare the functional outcomes between the pediatric and adult populations.

Methods: Disability risk (DR) was quantified using Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores within the National Trauma Data Bank for the most frequently occurring Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 2-5 thoracic injuries.

Lumbar vertebrae fracture injury risk in finite element reconstruction of CIREN and NASS frontal motor vehicle crashes.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to reconstruct 4 real-world motor vehicle crashes (MVCs), 2 with lumbar vertebral fractures and 2 without vertebral fractures in order to elucidate the MVC and/or restraint variables that increase this injury risk.

Methods: A finite element (FE) simplified vehicle model (SVM) was used in conjunction with a previously developed semi-automated tuning method to arrive at 4 SVMs that were tuned to mimic frontal crash responses of a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2012 Ford Escape, 2007 Hummer H3, and 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier. Real-world crashes in the first 2 vehicles resulted in lumbar vertebrae fractures, whereas the latter 2 did not.

Multicenter analysis of CIREN occupant lumbar bone mineral density and correlation with age and fracture incidence.

Objective: This study aimed to quantify lumbar volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) for 873 seriously injured Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) motor vehicle crash occupants (372 male, 501 female) from 8 centers using phantomless computed tomography scans and to associate vBMD with age, fracture incidence, and osteopenia/osteoporosis diagnoses. The novelty of this work is that it associates vBMD with region of injury by applying an established method for vBMD measurement using phantomless computed tomography (CT).

Methods: A validated phantomless CT calibration method that uses patient-specific fat and muscle measurements to calibrate vBMD measured from the L1-L5 trabeculae was applied on 873 occupants from various CIREN centers.

Functional outcomes of motor vehicle crash head injuries in pediatric and adult occupants.

Objective: The objective of the study was to develop a disability-based metric for motor vehicle crash (MVC) injuries, with a focus on head injuries, and compare the functional outcomes between the pediatric and adult populations.

Methods: Disability risk (DR) was quantified using Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores within the National Trauma Data Bank-Research Data System (NTDB-RDS) for the top 95% most frequently occurring Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 3, 4, and 5 head injuries in NASS-CDS 2000-2011. Pediatric (ages 7-18), adult (19-45), middle-aged (46-65), and older adult (66+) patients with an FIM score available who were alive at discharge and had an AIS 3, 4, or 5 injury were included in the study.

Lumbar Bone Mineral Density Phantomless Computed Tomography Measurements and Correlation with Age and Fracture Incidence.

Objective: Low bone quality is a contributing factor to motor vehicle crash (MVC) injury. Quantification of occupant bone mineral density (BMD) is important from an injury causation standpoint. The first aim of this study was to validate a technique for measuring lumbar volumetric BMD (vBMD) from phantomless computed tomography (CT) scans.

Age- and sex-specific thorax finite element model development and simulation.

Objective: The shape, size, bone density, and cortical thickness of the thoracic skeleton vary significantly with age and sex, which can affect the injury tolerance, especially in at-risk populations such as the elderly. Computational modeling has emerged as a powerful and versatile tool to assess injury risk. However, current computational models only represent certain ages and sexes in the population.

Estimated injury risk for specific injuries and body regions in frontal motor vehicle crashes.

Objective: Injury risk curves estimate motor vehicle crash (MVC) occupant injury risk from vehicle, crash, and/or occupant factors. Many vehicles are equipped with event data recorders (EDRs) that collect data including the crash speed and restraint status during a MVC. This study's goal was to use regulation-required data elements for EDRs to compute occupant injury risk for (1) specific injuries and (2) specific body regions in frontal MVCs from weighted NASS-CDS data.

Cross-sectional neck response of a total human body FE model during simulated frontal and side automobile impacts.

Human body finite element (FE) models are beginning to play a more prevalent role in the advancement of automotive safety. A methodology has been developed to evaluate neck response at multiple levels in a human body FE model during simulated automotive impacts. Three different impact scenarios were simulated: a frontal impact of a belted driver with airbag deployment, a frontal impact of a belted passenger without airbag deployment and an unbelted side impact sled test.