Citation

Whitley PE, Paskoff GR. Int. J. Crashworthiness 2001; 6(3): 295-305.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

In determining the risk of injury in the military aviation environment, a male and female of similar height and weight have been assumed to have the same risk of vertebral injury during an escape or crash scenario. A Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) study has been performed to analytically quantify the vertebral strength properties between men and women for C5, T12 and L4. Significant differences were found between bone mineral density (BMD) by gender at C5 and vertebral dimension parameters at all locations by gender. The cross sectional area and BMD product, a measure of compressive strength, was significantly different for only C5 by gender. Predicted strength based on the area-density product was not different by location or gender but when predicted by area, age, gender, location and structure was significantly lower for females at L4. Using multiple and response surface regression, anthropometrical measures predicted BMD for males at T12 and L4; cross sectional area for females at L4 and males at C5; and area-density product at all locations for both genders. Given the lack of significant difference in area-density product at T12 and L4 by gender, males and females that fall within the parameters of this study group would appear to be at the same risk of vertebral compressive injury. Using the same arguments for C5, females demonstrated a 13% decrease in area-density product and would likely be at a greater risk for compressive injury than males. However, whether a relationship exists between the C5 area-density product and C5 compressive strength is not known.

Language: en