Assessment of Neonatal Brachial Plexus
Nerves Post Stretch Injury
Lindsay Hager1, Virginia Orozco1, Anita Singh2, Sriram Balasubramanian1 1Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 2Widener University, Chester, PA
Currently, only adult human and animal models exist for the understanding of brachial plexus morphology post stretch injury. The brachial plexus is a group of nerves around the shoulder, which when damaged can cause a loss of movement in the arm. The objective of this study was to assess neonatal piglet brachial plexus tissue for blood vessel and fiber disruption post stretch. Fifty-four H&E-stained slides from two piglets (3-5 days old) were imaged using a Leica DMI 4000 B microscope at 5x and 10x along the length of the nerve. Each image was scored by two independent observers using an adaptive scoring system. The observers were unaware of the extent of injury each nerve had previously undergone. By looking at the average scores per slide, it is evident that stretched nerves showed an increase in blood vessel rupture and fiber disruption than non-stretched nerves. This provides results exhibiting the structural changes of the brachial plexus nerves post stretch. Conducting these experiments and analyzing the results can lead to a better understanding of the injury mechanism of neonatal brachial plexus palsy.
Lindsay Hager1, Virginia Orozco1, Anita Singh2, Sriram Balasubramanian1 1Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 2Widener University, Chester, PA
Currently, only adult human and animal models exist for the understanding of brachial plexus morphology post stretch injury. The brachial plexus is a group of nerves around the shoulder, which when damaged can cause a loss of movement in the arm. The objective of this study was to assess neonatal piglet brachial plexus tissue for blood vessel and fiber disruption post stretch. Fifty-four H&E-stained slides from two piglets (3-5 days old) were imaged using a Leica DMI 4000 B microscope at 5x and 10x along the length of the nerve. Each image was scored by two independent observers using an adaptive scoring system. The observers were unaware of the extent of injury each nerve had previously undergone. By looking at the average scores per slide, it is evident that stretched nerves showed an increase in blood vessel rupture and fiber disruption than non-stretched nerves. This provides results exhibiting the structural changes of the brachial plexus nerves post stretch. Conducting these experiments and analyzing the results can lead to a better understanding of the injury mechanism of neonatal brachial plexus palsy.