US Department of Defense
BLAST INJURY RESEARCH
COORDINATING OFFICE
Advancing Blast Injury Research to Protect and Heal Those Who Serve

International State-of-the-Science Meeting on the Biomedical Basis for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) Environmental Sensor Threshold Values

Despite research in the area of mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and methods for detecting mTBI events, our understanding of the biomedical basis for mTBI environmental sensor threshold values is limited. Researchers continue to have difficulty with quantifying blast intensity and correlating that data to acute and chronic neurological effects. To identify and address these challenges, the DoD Blast Injury Research Program Coordinating Office (PCO) hosted the 2014 International State-of-the-Science (SoS) Meeting on the Biomedical Basis for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Environmental Sensor Threshold Values in McLean, Virginia on November 4-6, 2014. Discussions and recommendations from this meeting guide the development of improved medical screening and assessment tools and drive improvements in protective equipment.

Purpose and Meeting Objectives

  • Assess the current state of the science for the biomedical basis of environmental sensor threshold values and the relationship between these threshold values and the risk of developing mTBI
  • Identify gaps in the development and utilization of current environmental sensor injury threshold values
  • Guide future research to gain understanding of the relationship between varying blast forces and the development of TBI
  • Improve protection, treatment, and mitigation for both civilians and Service Members

Questions for Discussion

The meeting participants were charged with answering the following questions during the working group sessions:

  • Are the existing environmental sensor threshold values suitable for predicting the development of mTBI?
  • What are the challenges for developing biomedically valid, standardized thresholds that accurately capture mTBI events?
  • What are the appropriate parameters (e.g., linear/rotational acceleration, pressure, event duration) for which sensor threshold values need to be established?
  • What are the existing knowledge gaps that require additional research?
Last modified: 18-Jun-2019