Neurological Disorder: Traumatic Brain Injury

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most frequent neurological disorder worldwide. Over 1.7 Million individuals suffer a TBI each year with an incidence of 235–556/100,000. In severe TBI cases, fatality rates mount up to 40%, and in survival disability rate, it is as high as 55–77%, leading to reduce in the quality of life. TBI is caused by head trauma, including the more typical closed head injury, in which rapid acceleration or deceleration induces shearing to the cerebral tissue and produces other forces in the brain and impacts against the frontal and temporal fossae of the skull. TBI is associated with the later onset of neurodegenerative disorders. One of the most common across all severities of closed head injury is diffuse axonal injury (DAI). DAI is a common pathological feature of TBI. It is associated by shearing axons in the hemispheric white matter, corpus callosum, and brainstem. It was originally described as a dynamic deformation of white matter tracts following trauma, which results in shearing of axons and interruption of axonal transport, which leads to accumulation of transported material along the length of axon at the site of injury. Axonal pathology describes this condition as axonal varicosities, while the large single swelling which represents complete axonal disconnection is identified as axonal bulb. Understanding the dynamics of DAI is required to develop an effective therapy. In order to achieve that, a number of animal models have been introduced and characterized since the late 1970s.
A. Primary Mechanical Damage
Axons behave differently at the moment of head impact. They may be discontent known as “primary axotomy”; it is a rare occurrence. Or they may be exposed to “secondary axotomy”,...

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...e precise control of impact parameters.
On the other hand, the model is easy to preform, and it can produce graded DAI, linear and angular acceleration. This raises an interesting question about the specific differences that can be observed in axons exposed to rotation, twisting and pressuring effect of impac.
Requirements of Ideal Experimental Model
It is difficult to design an ideal experimental model that replicates entire requirements of DAI dynamics and achieves the purposes. It is believed that the ideal experimental model should meet the following criteria:
i. DAI is the dominant pathological change that takes place post-injury. ii. The mechanism of the injury resembles the known mechanism of DAI in patients. iii. The model produces gradual DAI. Injury severity in relation to the degree of mechanical force applied. iv. Controlled mechanical input.

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