Further investigation is warranted to determine whether the changes are progressive and whether repeated exposures to blast accelerate the neuropathology and functional deficits.
The report, released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine, a government advisory group that studies health and medical issues, recommends that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs conduct careful studies "to confirm reports of long-term or latent effects of exposure to blasts".
Rather, it can be the cumulative impact of several such blackouts over weeks and months of exposure to blasts that put the brain through a sudden and powerful change in atmospheric pressure, expand and contract it, and produce changes at the molecular level.
However, this is not always possible, e.g., prior exposure to blasts and explosions followed by wound treatment with aminoglycosides in war zones [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]; or chronic exposure to moderate sound levels and aminoglycosides by pre-term infants in intensive care units [16].
Military mTBI is also random and unpredictable, ranging from a single injury to many thousands of traumatic injuries over similar time periods depending on an individual's chance exposure to blasts and impacts.
Many veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq have experienced exposure to blasts and explosions, resulting in multiple complex injuries to body systems, emotional distress and mental disorders, [ 1, 2] and pain [ 3- 5].
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative tauopathy that is associated with repetitive head impacts or exposure to blast waves.
Adult male rats were subjected to this range of accelerations, in the absence of exposure to blast overpressure, and evaluated over 28 days for working memory (Y maze) and anxiety (elevated plus maze).
They can be easily measured by RF antennas, and may provide the means to design a diagnostic tool that records a quantitative measure of the head's exposure to blast insult.
