COMBAT VETERANS’ BRAINS REVEAL HIDDEN DAMAGE

Combat Veterans’ Brains Reveal Hidden Damage from IED Blasts

The brains of some Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who survived blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and died later of other causes show a distinctive honeycomb pattern of broken and swollen nerve fibers throughout critical brain regions, including those that control executive function. The pattern is different from brain damage caused by car crashes, drug overdoses or collision sports, and may be the never-before-reported signature of blast injuries suffered by soldiers as far back as World War I.

Vassilis Koliatsos, M.D., professor of pathology, neurology, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, recently published a study in Acta Neuropathologica Communications that found survivable blasts may cause hidden brain injuries that play a role in the psychological and social problems some veterans face after coming home.

Source and further reading:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/

Image:
Brain sections from three different individuals show (left) axons with large, bulb-shaped lesions characteristic of a motor vehicle crash; (center) many smaller lesions characteristic of a blast injury; and (right) fewer lesions characteristic of an opiate overdose.
Credit: Vassilis Koliatsos

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