Methodology for Evaluation of WIAMan Injury Assessment Reference Curves Using Whole Body Match-Paired Data

• Published in: Annals of biomedical engineering 2021-11, Vol.49 (11), p.3128-3142
• Main Authors: Barnes, David R., Danelson, Kerry A., Moholkar, Nitin M., Loftis, Kathryn L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceleration; Anthropomorphism; Autopsy; Biochemistry; Biological and Medical Physics; Biomechanical Phenomena; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical engineering; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biomedicine; Biophysics; Blast Injuries; Cadaver; Classical Mechanics; Datasets; Engineering; Explosions; Humans; Injuries; Laboratories; Male; Manikins; Methodology; Military Personnel; Models, Biological; Performance assessment; Qualitative analysis; Quality; Sports injuries; Traffic accidents & safety; Vehicles; Vertical loads; WIAMan Biomechanics
• ISSN: 0090-6964; 1573-9686
• DOI: 10.1007/s10439-021-02770-7

Development of the Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin (WIAMan) capability has included the creation of injury assessment reference curves (IARCs) specific to under-body blast (UBB) loading mechanisms and injuries. The WIAMan IARCs were created from high-rate vertical loading tests of component post-mortem human surrogates (PMHS) and analogous components of the WIAMan anthropomorphic test device (ATD). Validation of the WIAMan IARCs is required prior to the WIAMan ATD being utilized for injury assessment in live-fire vehicle test events. A portion of the validation process involves evaluating the ability of the IARCs to predict injury at the system level (whole body). This study evaluates a methodology to assess the performance of the WIAMan IARCs using match-paired tests of whole body PMHS and the WIAMan ATD. The methodology includes a qualitative analysis designed to identify false-positive and false-negative ATD predictions, as well as a quantitative analysis that utilizes area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AROC) and Brier score indices to grade IARC performance. Three WIAMan IARCs were used to exemplify the proposed methodology and results are provided. Attributes of the false-prediction, AROC, and Brier score portions of the methodology are presented, with results indicating the new methodology is thorough and robust in evaluation of IARCs.