Assessment of a hydrodynamic model of Whiplash induced transient pressure in the spinal canal - Using in-vivo Whiplash simulation data
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Biomedical engineering (MPBME), MSc
Publicerad
2024
Författare
Khalilollahi, Zhina
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
During rear-end collisions, the occupant’s body is accelerated and pushed forward by the seatback while the unsupported head lags behind, resulting in the Whiplash motion to the cervical
spine. Whiplash injuries are one of the most common injuries in rear impacts, that often cause
pain and can cause symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, vision disorder, and neurological
and upper extremities. During the rapid Whiplash motion in the neck, blood redistribution in
the internal vertebral venous plexus will compensate for the rapid volume change inside the
spinal canal, and as a result impulsive pressure transients are induced. It has been hypothesized
that the transient pressure changes can result in injurious loading on the cervical dorsal root
ganglia, This may explain the mechanism of injury and the source of the symptoms that
whiplash injury victims suffer from. This project aimed to analyze high speed X-ray movies of
porcine subjects in in-vivo whiplash experiments of varying severity, to digitize vertebral
motion of the neck during the tests, and to evaluate the accuracy of a previously developed
MATLAB-Simulink hydrodynamic model of transient pressure changes in Whiplash motion
using the data from the mentioned experiments. Overall, the simulated results are in the same
order of magnitude compared to the experimental readings, but the timing seems to have a delay.
The raw X-ray movies had a limited noise-signal ratio due to the relatively thick soft-tissue
layer in the porcine neck that resulted in a limited contrast in the video frames. There is potential
for more accurate tracking of the vertebral angular motion with modified signal filtering or
possibly by applying machine learning techniques for improved pattern recognition in the video
frames.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Whiplash motion , Neck injury , Pressure transients , Internal vertebral venous plexuses , Dorsal root ganglion , Hydrodynamic system of tubes