The Neurological Effects of Repeated Exposure to Military Occupational Blast Implications for Prevention and Health
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THE SEVENTH ANNUAL DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STATE-OF-THE-SCIENCE MEETING The Neurological Effects of Repeated Exposure to Military Occupational Blast Implications for Prevention and Health PROCEEDINGS, FINDINGS, AND EXPERT RECOMMENDATIONS 12 – 14 March 2018 C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/CF380z1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. ISBN: 978-1-9774-0206-6 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2019 RAND Corporation R® is a registered trademark. Cover photos (clockwise from top left): U.S. Army photo by Spec. Donald Williams; U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez; U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mauricio Campino; Department of Defense photo by Cpl. Tyler Main; U.S. Air Force photo; U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael Eaddy. Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. 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Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface There has been growing concern over potential subconcussive neurological injury following repetitive low-level military occupational blast exposure (MOB). Examples include heavy weapons training and activities such as breaching. To address this issue, the Seventh Department of Defense (DoD) State-of-the-Science Meeting (SoSM) was held March 12–15, 2018, at the RAND Corporation’s offices in Arlington, Virginia. These proceedings include background information on the meeting and its theme, summaries of a systematic RAND Arroyo Center literature review and meeting and poster presentations, and complete working group findings and expert panel conclusions and recommendations. The SoSM expert panel recommended that DoD leaders (1) enforce DoD policies and standards related to low-level MOB; (2) develop high-quality research assessing the occurrence of repeated, low-level occupational blast injury; (3) plan and complete a large-scale population- based longitudinal study of military personnel with long follow-up to assess neurological and general health outcomes after repeated, low-level MOB exposure; (4) emphasize research on large animals, including nonhuman primates, as part of the department’s animal research initiatives to improve the applicability of findings to humans; (5) complete studies that compare extant MOB exposure assessment tools, protective practices, and protective devices with improvement approaches to facilitate incremental gains in safety and outcomes; (6) catalogue, map, and make available to researchers, safety programs, and military end users unclassified weapon system–specific information and service member–specific load profiles for key military occupations, exposures, and contexts; and (7) increase opportunities for embedded scientists to study low-level MOB exposure among training units and in deployed contexts. The meeting and these proceedings were sponsored by the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The Project Unique Identification Code (PUIC) for the project that produced this document is RAN177782. This research was conducted within RAND Arroyo Center’s Personnel, Training, and Health Program. RAND Arroyo Center, part of the RAND Corporation, is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) sponsored by the United States Army. RAND operates under a “Federal-Wide Assurance” (FWA00003425) and complies with the Code of Federal Regulations for the Protection of Human Subjects Under United States Law (45 CFR 46), also known as “the Common Rule,” as well as with the implementation guidance set forth in DoD Instruction 3216.02. As applicable, this compliance includes reviews and approvals by RAND’s Institutional Review Board (the Human Subjects Protection Committee) and by the U.S. Army. The views of participants are solely their own and do not represent the official policy or position of DoD or the U.S. government. iii Contents Preface ........................................................................................................................................... iii Figures .......................................................................................................................................... vii Tables ............................................................................................................................................. ix Summary ......................................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... xiii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ xv 1. Background .................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Literature Review Summary ........................................................................................................ 3 Literature Review Methods ....................................................................................................................... 3 Literature Review Findings ....................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review Summary ..................................................................................................................... 7 3. Keynote Address ......................................................................................................................... 9 4. Discussion Panels ...................................................................................................................... 11 Panel on Strategy: DoD Policy and Requirements .................................................................................. 11 Panel on the State of Current Research and Solutions ............................................................................ 12 5. Scientific Presentation Summaries ............................................................................................ 15 Understanding Potential Neurological Consequences and Mechanisms of Repeated Blast Exposure ... 15 Profiling of Blast-Overpressure Effects on the Human Brain in Breacher Training .............................. 19 Quantifying Occupational Blast Exposure During Military and Law Enforcement Training ................ 20 Receiving a Multiple Peak Blast Dose in a Single Complex Blast Event ............................................... 22 Suicide in Combatants with Extensive Blast Exposure: Strictly a Mental Health Issue or Evidence of Underlying Structural Brain Lesions? .......................................................................................... 23 Impaired Stress Coping and Cognitive Function Caused by Blast Exposure ......................................... 23 Occupational Risk Moderates the Relationship Between Major Blast Exposure and Traumatic Brain Injury ....................................................................................................................................... 26 Epidemiologic Study of Occupational Blast Exposure and Subsequent Diagnoses ............................... 27 Blast-Induced “PTSD”: Evidence from an Animal Model ..................................................................... 27 The Dynamics of Structural Changes After Repeated Mild Blast TBI: Acute Pathologies and Lasting Consequences ...................................................................................................................... 28 Neuronal Response to Multiple Shock Tube Overpressure Exposures ................................................... 29 Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability Is a Sensitive Neurological Marker for Single and Repeated Occupational Low-Level Blast Exposures in a Rodent Model ......................................................... 29 Predictive Injury Risk Curves for Blast-Related TBI Through Computational Modeling of Multiparametric Empirical Data ....................................................................................................... 30 Building Translational Bridges Linking Animal Blast Model Pathology to Neuroimaging and Neuropathology Findings in Veterans with Blast-Related mTBI ..................................................... 32 An Enhanced Human Surrogate Head Model for Evaluating Blast Injury Mitigation Strategies .......... 32 v Changes in Monoamine and Galanin Systems Following Single and Repeated