Correlating Tissue Mechanics and Spinal Cord Injury: Patient-Specific Finite Element Models of Unilateral Cervical Contusion Spinal Cord Injury in Non-Human Primates

Non-human primate (NHP) models are the closest approximation of human spinal cord injury (SCI) available for pre-clinical trials. The NHP models, however, include broader morphological variability that can confound experimental outcomes. We developed subject-specific finite element (FE) models to quantify the relationship between impact mechanics and SCI, including the correlations between FE outcomes and tissue damage. Subject-specific models of cervical unilateral contusion SCI were generated from pre-injury MRIs of six NHPs. Stress and strain outcomes were compared with lesion histology using logit analysis. A parallel generic model was constructed to compare the outcomes of subject-specific and generic models. The FE outcomes were correlated more strongly with gray matter damage (0.29 < R < 0.76) than white matter (0.18 < R < 0.58). Maximum/minimum principal strain, Von-Mises and Tresca stresses showed the strongest correlations (0.31 < R < 0.76) with tissue damage in the gray matter while minimum principal strain, Von-Mises stress, and Tresca stress best predicted white matter damage (0.23 < R < 0.58). Tissue damage thresholds varied for each subject. The generic FE model captured the impact biomechanics in two of the four models; however, the correlations between FE outcomes and tissue damage were weaker than the subject-specific models (gray matter [0.25 < R < 0.69] and white matter [R < 0.06] except for one subject [0.26 < R < 0.48]). The FE mechanical outputs correlated with tissue damage in spinal cord white and gray matters, and the subject-specific models accurately mimicked the biomechanics of NHP cervical contusion impacts.