Abstract
This study focuses on microstructural changes that occur within the mammalian lung when subject to blast and how these changes influence strain distributions within the tissue. Shock tube experiments were performed to generate the blast injured specimens (cadaveric Sprague-Dawley rats). Blast overpressures of 100 kPa and 180 kPa were studied. Synchrotron tomography imaging was used to capture volumetric image data of lungs. Specimens were ventilated using a custom-built system to study multiple inflation pressures during each tomography scan. This data enabled the first digital volume correlation (DVC) measurements in lung tissue to be performed. Quantitative analysis was performed to describe the damaged architecture of the lung. No clear changes in the microstructure of the tissue morphology were observed due to controlled low to moderate level blast exposure. However, significant focal sites of injury were observed using DVC, which allowed detection of bias and concentration in the patterns of strain level. Morphological analysis corroborated the findings, illustrating that the focal damage caused by a blast can give rise to diffuse influence across the tissue. It is important to characterise the non-instantly fatal doses of blast, given the transient nature of blast lung in the clinical setting. This research has highlighted the need for better understanding of focal injury and its zone of influence (alveolar inter-dependency and neighbouring tissue burden as a result of focal injury). Digital volume correlation techniques show great promise as a tool to advance this endeavour, providing a new perspective on lung mechanics post-blast.
Highlights
Trauma research is a vast and rapidly growing field and blast injuries represent the most extreme level of trauma
This study aims to explore microstructural deformation in lung tissue using digital volume correlation (DVC), showing how differing levels of blast loading can affect the behavior of lung tissue during respiration
Peak blast wave pressures of 100 kPa for the low-level blast and 180 kPa for the moderate-level blast were measured at the outlet of the shock tube
Summary
Trauma research is a vast and rapidly growing field and blast injuries represent the most extreme level of trauma. Blast injuries present a concern, for military personnel in the context of combat and civilians. This is due to a host of explosive threats that injure unprotected civilians in everyday life, such as industrial accidents, legacies from war (landmines), and terrorism. Microstructural Consequences of BLI Characterized with DVC and mechanisms of the injuries will differ, depending on a range of variables associated with the explosive event. The chasm in knowledge surrounding blast injuries is created by the sheer number of variables present in a blast event (weight/type/shape of explosive, the position relative to the victim, the surrounding environment, etc.). New approaches are required to identify the underlying mechanism and effects of injury associated with blast lung trauma
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