Respuesta de los autores: Troponina de elevada sensibilidad en el diagnóstico de síndrome coronario agudo en urgencias / Author's reply: High-sensitivity troponin testing in the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome in the emergency department

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Driving position field study, differences with the whiplash protocol and biomechanics experimental responses.

Rear-impact collisions at low speed are a leading cause of economic costs among motor vehicle accidents. Recently, EuroNCAP has incorporated in its protocol the whiplash test, to reproduce a low-speed rear impact. This paper presents a field driving study to assess the potential differences between the EuroNCAP dummy tests and actual drivers in the field, focusing on occupant position and biomechanics experimental results. A total of 182 drivers were randomly selected in two geographical areas in Spain. The driving position of each driver was recorded with a focus on the most relevant measurements for rear impact. Statistical analysis was performed to obtain means, standard deviations and density functions to compare observational seating position with that of the EuroNCAP testing protocol. The observational data showed a similar seatback angle to that used in the EuroNCAP protocol (24° in front of 25° for the protocol), a greater distance between the head vertex and the top of the head restraint (53mm compared to 39.5mm), and less distance between the occipital bone of the head and the headrest (67.9 compared to 89.3mm). Based on these data, 4 dummy tests were conducted using the dummy BioRID IIg. The baseline test was designed to reproduce the dummy position according to EuroNCAP 3.0 whiplash protocol. Three different additional tests were defined to reproduce the actual observed driving position as well as to assess a "worst case" scenario in terms of reduced seatback angle. These variations in initial driver position, comparing the EuroNCAP protocol to the observational study results, were not observed to cause significant differences in the biomechanical values measured in the BioRID IIg, The T1 acceleration was reduced less than 8%, the NIC was increased about 8%, and the NKm presented a reduction of 20%. Reducing the seat angle was observed to be more harmful in terms of NIC.

Response of the sternum under dynamic 3-point bending - biomed 2010.

The goal of this study was to investigate the response and failure properties of the human sternum under bending loading. Nine sternum specimens from post mortem human surrogates (n=7 male, n=2 female, age: 62.7 +/- 10.9 years) were extracted and potted in a three point bending test setup. Specimens were loaded to failure at their center points in bending at 1100 mm/s, with some specimens previously loaded in a non-failure quasi-static loading test. In two cases, the non-failure test was repeated to show that specimens were not damaged during non-failure testing. The sternum specimens were found generally to be unable to support shear forces in the anterior-posterior direction and as a result had relatively low failure moments (24.1 Nm +/- 20.1 Nm). While two of the specimens did fail in bending, the remaining specimens failed as a result of the high tensile forces introduced by the bending loads. These specimens first experienced compressive loads, and then, as the potted ends continued to rotate, tensile loads, which resulted in failure of the specimens (400-800 N).