Highlights
- •Cerebral Blood Vessels present a deterioration with age.
- •Mechanical stregnth of Cerebral Blood Vessels become lower as the age increases.
- •Ultimate stress and strain of Cerebral Blood Vessels are lower for elderly people.
Abstract
Background
It is well established that the probability of occurrence of acute subdural hematomas
in traumatic situations increases with age, since the main cause of such hematomas
is the mechanical failure of cerebral blood vessels known as bridging veins. This
research aims to determine whether there is an effect of age on the mechanical properties
of these cerebral vessels, because previous reported studies were conflicting.
Methods
This study used mechanical tests blue of cerebral bridging veins from post-mortem
human subjects. In particular, a series of in vitro tensile tests were performed on
a balanced sample of bridging veins from different human subjects.
Findings
The mechanical parameters measured from the tests were analyzed by means of regression
analysis looking for age related effects. The results show that there is a significant
effect on both the ultimate strength, maximum stress and strain that the specimens
can withstand. The quantitative analysis shows reductions of nearly 50% in ultimate
stress, and almost 35% in ultimate strain.
Interpretation
Mechanical deterioration of the mechanical strength of cerebral blood vessels seems
to be a major factor involved in the increase of frequency of acute subdural hematoma
in elderly people in a wide range of life-threatening traumatic situations.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 12, 2022
Accepted:
October 2,
2022
Received:
June 9,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.