Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) and Phelps Health are looking to advance traumatic brain injury (TBI) detection, prevention, and overall understanding regarding soldiers and recruits of the U.S. Army.
The research is supported by $5.1 million in federal funds by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory through the Leonard Wood Institute (LWI), which is a research center located near Missouri’s Fort Leonard Wood military training installation.
“Thousands of recruits come to Fort Leonard Wood each year for basic training, and hundreds of those recruits experience TBI during their training,” says Dr. Costas Tsatsoulis, Missouri S&T vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate studies. “Preventing TBI is a priority for the Army, and we have the breadth of research expertise to help.”
Researchers will test a helmet embedded with sensors that can transmit brain activity. A special helmet liner is also in development, which will act as a protective barrier between the wearer’s brain and harmful blast waves. The team is also conducting a urine test for fast TBI detection, and creating antioxidants for future TBI treatment or prevention.
The work supports a growing need for brain trauma prevention and diagnosis in the military. According to Missouri S&T, TBI affects “hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers,” and that stat may be linked to pressure wave exposure from firing heavy weapons.
At Fort Leonard Wood alone, 600 to 800 soldiers experience TBI out of its 85,000 annual recruits, and many cases are left undocumented, Dr. Don James, Phelps Health’s senior vice president of research and government affairs, explains. Furthermore, most brain injuries are experienced during basic training.
Medical complications like dementia, Alzheimer’s, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can plague TBI-sufferers when left untreated.
Beyond the military, the research can help the broader medical field quicken the pace in brain trauma diagnosis and treatment, preventing future chronic ailments.
