Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Dept. of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 105 Hayden Hall, 3320 Smith Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Neuroimage. 2011 Jan;54 Suppl 1:S37-44. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.10.076. Epub 2010 Oct 30.
Blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is the "signature wound" of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, with no objective information of relative blast exposure, warfighters with bTBI may not receive appropriate medical care and are at risk of being returned to the battlefield. Accordingly, we have created a colorimetric blast injury dosimeter (BID) that exploits material failure of photonic crystals to detect blast exposure. Appearing like a colored sticker, the BID is fabricated in photosensitive polymers via multi-beam interference lithography. Although very stable in the presence of heat, cold or physical impact, sculpted micro- and nano-structures of the BID are physically altered in a precise manner by blast exposure, resulting in color changes that correspond with blast intensity. This approach offers a lightweight, power-free sensor that can be readily interpreted by the naked eye. Importantly, with future refinement this technology may be deployed to identify soldiers exposed to blast at levels suggested to be supra-threshold for non-impact blast-induced mild TBI.
爆炸伤性脑损伤（bTBI）是目前伊拉克和阿富汗战争的“标志性创伤”。然而，由于缺乏相对爆炸暴露的客观信息，患有 bTBI 的参战人员可能无法得到适当的医疗护理，并面临重返战场的风险。因此，我们开发了一种比色爆炸伤剂量计（BID），它利用光子晶体的材料失效来检测爆炸暴露。BID 看起来像一个彩色贴纸，通过多光束干涉光刻技术在光敏聚合物中制造。尽管在热、冷或物理冲击下非常稳定，但 BID 的微纳结构在精确的爆炸暴露下会发生物理改变，导致与爆炸强度相对应的颜色变化。这种方法提供了一种轻量级、无需电源的传感器，可以通过肉眼轻松解读。重要的是，随着未来的改进，这项技术可能被用于识别暴露于爆炸中的士兵，其暴露水平被认为高于非撞击性爆炸引起的轻度 TBI 的阈限值。
