TBI: designed for young children

engraving

A year ago a post about traumatic brain injury TBI statistics in children was published. Occasionally, yesterday I saw pictures from The Book of Accidents: designed for young children. It was published in 1831. This masterpiece is illustrated by numerous possibilities to be killed of severely injured. I believe that little readers were impressed for the entire life. As far as most of the engravings demonstrate other 'young children' causing traumas to their friends on purpose, some readers could definitely use the knowledge acquired from the book for causing accidents and not for avoiding them.

Many illustrations are related to TBI, following disability, motor disorders, and, possibly, rehabilitation.

TBI statistics in children

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), also called acquired brain injury or simply head injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.

The term TBI is used for head injuries that can cause changes in one or more areas, such as:
- thinking and reasoning,
- understanding words,
- remembering things,
- paying attention,
- solving problems,
- thinking abstractly,
- talking,
- behaving,
- walking and other physical activities,
- seeing and/or hearing, and

- learning.

The term TBI is not used for a person who is born with a brain injury. It also is not used for brain injuries that happen during birth.

More than one million children receive brain injuries each year in the USA (almost half of all TBIs). More than 30,000 of these children have lifelong disabilities as a result of the brain injury.

Among children ages 0 to 14 years, TBI results in an estimated
- 2,685 deaths;
- 37,000 hospitalizations; and
- 435,000 emergency department visits.

These count only cases seen in an emergency department, but not with light damage.

• Individuals age 15 to 24 have the highest risk of TBI.
• Falls are the leading cause of TBI; rates are highest for children ages 0 to 4 years.
• The rate of motor vehicle-traffic-related TBI is highest among adolescents ages 15 to 19 years.

• Child abuse is the cause of 64% of all infant head injuries
• Approximately 1 in 500 school-age children each year receive a head injury severe enough to be hospitalized
• 1 million children sustain a head injury each year
• 165,000 children will be hospitalized due to a head injury
• 1 in 10 of those children hospitalized will suffer moderate to severe impairments

Source: Langlois JA, Rutland-Brown W, Thomas KE. Traumatic brain injury in the United States: emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nation Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2006.

Kraus, J. F, and MacArthur, D. L. (1996) Epidemiologic Aspects of Brain Injury. Neurologic Clinics, 14(2): 435-450.

Not iPhone but BrainScope NT-1000

Very few claim that they know how to treat. Meanwhile, dozens say that know to diagnose. BrainScope is one of them. Their BrainScope NT-1000 (under development) is to diagnose traumatic brain injuries (TBI). It uses quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) that was popular in the 1930's, but not to-day. Nevertheless, BrainScopes says, that they develop other devices for detecting and diagnostics of (take a deep breath):

- stroke

- Alzheimer’s

- dementia

- depression

- seizure

- ADD

- autism and related conditions

- encephalopathy

- drug overdose

... and etc.

I do not know whether it really works, but want to try it and I have tens of ideas where to use. Firstly, of cause, to detect the effect of our method!

"Red freaks" or "A hamlet against dementia"

Neuroprotection is a very 'glamour' word nowadays. Hundreds of compounds have being tested for their neuroprotective ability. Most of them found to be effective [in animals], only few reach Phase II clinical studies, less then ten got FDA and are on market.

My experience with red light neuroprotection is in retinal lesions, caused by laser. In rats. The experience was negative, i.e. no positive effect was found. This idea was based on the positive experience of similar testing on the model of methanol toxicity in rodent eyes.

The news are that Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham, invented/created/developed a hamlet that stimulates your brain with infra-red light in order to treat dementia, Alzheimer's disease, to help improve cognition. Dr Dougal suppose that ten minutes of daily exposure (hamlet wear) will be enough. I am not sure, but probably, he is afraid that longer exposure may cause overheating and boiling of one's brains. Anyway, it is not connected to motor rehabilitation now, but may be connected in the summer 2008, if the planned clinical studies will be successful.

Also the success of clinical studies will mean that staying outside in the sunny day for 10 minutes daily with your head uncovered may prevent you of being 'old idiot' when you will become 'old and wise' instead.

Culture of balance

The previous post raised another question: can balance and postural natural training depend on culture differences? Of course, the environmental and habituation factors are important, but maybe, the neuronal organization is involved too?

Do stroke survivors in Alabama and in China walk different?

Brain activity in East Asians and Americans is different as they make relative and absolute judgments. The brain regions involved in attention that are engaged by more demanding tasks are different.
Thinking on pathology may lead to tremendous speculations. The first question should ask whether the brain activity at common tasks is different in different cultures.

Prevent TBI

Prevent TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) - put a helmet on! And you fill the helmet with sensors prior you put it on you can which TBIs it prevented, when, and how. (If it did not prevent TBI, be sure it was the last recorded)

The US Army model (let's call it 'Pro Edition') can record 527 events ranging from being dropped on the ground to being blasted by a bomb. The sensor weighs 6 ounces, runs on a battery that can last six months and fits on the back of the helmet (see the video here).

The football model ('Home Edition'?) is equipped with sensors that measure the magnitude, location, and direction of blows to a player's head. The single number that I found about it is the price - US$999. Put it on if you value your head, or do not play football.