Motivation: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a global health challenge, yet its mechanism is not understood. Human post-impact imaging is multi-factorial and variable. Studies to unveil the local brain injury cascade are needed. Goal(s): To present a porcine model of realistic human-mimicking head impacts with multiple MRI timepoints and histologic validation. Approach: A linear impactor delivers a head impact leading to high rotational accelerations. We record biomechanics and perform detailed pre-/post-impact MR on a human scanner, ex vivo MR, coregistered histology, and finite-element modeling (FEM). Results: We identify injury on in vivo and ex vivo MRI, predict with FEM, and validate with pathology. Impact: Our novel large-animal linear-impact head impact model can detect injury with pre- and post-impact in vivo and ex vivo MRI, pathology, and finite-element modeling. This paradigm can uncover the microstructural, biomechanical, and molecular mechanism of head impact-induced brain injury.
Georgiadis et al. (Tue,) studied this question.