An instrumented mouthguard for measuring linear and angular head impact kinematics in American football

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Camarillo, David B.¹; Shull, Pete B.¹; Mattson, James²; Shultz, Rebecca²; Garza, Daniel²

An instrumented mouthguard for measuring linear and angular head impact kinematics in American football

Ann Biomed Eng. September 2013;41(9):1939-1949

©2013 Biomedical Engineering Society

Affiliations

¹Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

²Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
Abstract and keywords

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a novel instrumented mouthguard as a research device for measuring head impact kinematics. To evaluate kinematic accuracy, laboratory impact testing was performed at sites on the helmet and facemask for determining how closely instrumented mouthguard data matched data from an anthropomorphic test device. Laboratory testing results showed that peak linear acceleration (r 2 = 0.96), peak angular acceleration (r 2 = 0.89), and peak angular velocity (r 2 = 0.98) measurements were highly correlated between the instrumented mouthguard and anthropomorphic test device. Normalized root-mean-square errors for impact time traces were 9.9 ± 4.4% for linear acceleration, 9.7 ± 7.0% for angular acceleration, and 10.4 ± 9.9% for angular velocity. This study demonstrates the potential of an instrumented mouthguard as a research tool for measuring in vivo impacts, which could help uncover the link between head impact kinematics and brain injury in American football.

Keywords: Concussion; mTBI; Brain; Angular velocity; Linear acceleration; Translational acceleration; Angular acceleration; Rotational velocity; Gyroscope
Links

DOI: 10.1007/s10439-013-0801-y

PubMed: 23604848

WoS: 000323736800015
History

Received: 2012-10-05

Accepted: 2013-03-25

Online: 2013-04-19

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