Cihan Gökce; Aynur Emine Cicekcibasi; Mehmet Tugrul Yilmaz & Demet Kiresi

Summary

In this study, it was aimed to determine the reliable morphometric data of the important bone structures on skull base using MDCT and to establish the differences of these data according to sex and lateralization. This study was retrospectively carried out on MDCT images in the Radiology Department of Meram Medical Faculty, Necmettin Erbakan University. We evaluated the images of the 100 (male 50 ­ female 50) adult subjects without cranial trauma, surgery, and any deformity of the bone. The height and anteroposterior diameter of the hypophysial fossa (HFheight, HFanteroposterior), the length of the occipital condylus, anterior and posterior intercondylar distances (OCn, AID, PID); sagittal diameter, transverse diameter and area of the foramen magnum (FMsgt, FMtrn, FMarea) were all measured. The statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS. The summary of the data was expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Student's t test was used to compare the male-female and right-left measurements. The relation betweeen parameters was evaluated by Pearson's correlation test. It was observed that right and left data in all parameters were higher in males than females. Higher values were usually determined on the right side in both sexes. In both sexes, some parameters were highly correlated (P<0.001). We believe that the results of this study may be useful for new surgical approaches and radiological assessment concerning skull base.

KEY WORDS: Skull base; Foramen; Canal; Morphometry; Multidetector computed tomography.

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