STUDY ON THE OCCURRENCE OF WORMIAN BONES AMONG THE MALE AND FEMALE SKULLS OF TAMIL NADU, INDIA

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Int J Anat Res 2015, 3(4):1700-03. ISSN 2321-4287 1700

Original Research Article

A STUDY ON THE OCCURRENCE OF W ORM IAN BONES AM ONG

THE M ALE AND FEM ALE SKULLS OF TAM IL NADU, INDIA

**A. M ary Antony Praba * , C. Venkatramaniah.**

ABSTRACT

Address for Correspondence: Dr. A. M ary Ant ony Praba. Associate Professor, Depart ment of Anat omy, Tagore M edical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. E-M ail: fio7rio@yahoo.co.in

Background: Wor m ian bones, also know n as int ra sut ural bones are ext ra bone pieces t hat occur w it hin a sut ure in t he cranium . These are irr egular isolat ed bones w hich appear in addit ion t o t he usual cent ers of ossificat ion of t he cranium and, alt hough unusual, are not rare. The num ber of sut ural bones varies considerably because diff erent individuals and different populat ion have different num bers of sut ural bones. They occur m ost ly along t he sut ur es and m eet ing point of t he cranial sut ures. They occur m ost frequent ly in t he course of t he lam bdoid sut ure. They are also occasionally seen w it hin t he sagit t al and cor onal sut ur es.

M at erials and M et hods: In t his present st udy w e analyzed t he occurrence of sut ural bones am ong 50 m ale and fem ale skulls in Tam il Nadu region and w e com pared t he result s along w it h t he st udies of Indian skul ls.

Result and Conclusion:Based on t he st udy w e concluded t hat sut ural bones are m ore am ong m ale skulls t han in fem ales am ong t he skulls of Tam il Nadu and t his is exact ly t he opposit e of t he result s given in Indian populat ion.

KEY W ORDS: Bregm a, Lam bda, Pt erion, Ast erion.

INTRODUCTION

Int ernat ional Journal of Anatomy and Research, Int J Anat Res 2015, Vol 3(4):1700-03. ISSN 2321- 4287 DOI: ht t p:/ / dx.doi.org/10.16965/ ijar.2015.320

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Received: 20 Nov 2015 Accept ed: 14 Dec 2015 Peer Review : 20 Nov 2015 Published (O): 31 Dec 2015 Revised: None Published (P): 31 Dec 2015

Int ernat ional Journal of Anat omy and Research ISSN 2321-4287

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DOI: 10.16965/ ijar.2015.320

Associate Professor, Depart ment of Anat omy, Tagore M edical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

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Wormian bones are named after Olaus Worm, Professor of Anat omy and t hey are also called as ossa w ormiana, int ersut ural bones and Inca bones/ Goet he’s ossicle [1]. His descript ion of t h e ext r a-su t u r al bo n es co nt r i bu t ed t o embryology. Embryologically the point s bregma, lambda, pt erion and ast erion are covered w it h mem branes, called as font enelles and w ill be ossified aft er birt h.

Bregma: It is t he meet ing point of saggit t al and coronal sut ure and at birth it is called as ant erior f ont enelle w hich w ill be closed ar ound 18 mont hs aft er birt h [2].Th e w o r m i an b o n e at bregma is cert ainly a rare occurrence.

La m b da : Lam bd a is t h e m eet in g p oi nt o f lambdoid and saggit t al sut ure and in infant s it

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A. M ary Ant ony Praba, C. Venkat ramaniah. STUDY ON THE OCCURRENCE OF WORM IAN BONES AM ONG THE M ALE AND FEM ALE SKULLS OF TAM IL NADU, INDIA.

M ATERIALS AND M ETHODS

Incidence of epipt eric bone is high in Indians-11.79%.

Ast e rio n : Ast er i on i n i n f an t s i s cal l ed as post eriolat eral font enelle and is t he m eet ing point of t emporal, occipit al and pariet al bones [5]. It w ill be closed few mont hs aft er birt h. Incidence of w ormian bone at ast erion is more in male in Indian

Sex difference-Indian skulls: The incidence of w ormian bone is more among t he female skulls (64.80%) [5]. Single w ormian bone w as seen in 26 (14.4%) [4] skulls w it h equal dist ribut ion among male and female skulls.

Fact o rs resp on sib le : W o r m i an b o n es ar e present in bot h normal and abnormal cases. They can be found as normal variant s and seem t o b e det er m i n ed gen et i cal l y i n cer t ai n populat ions.

1. Cranial deformation: The frequency w as found to be more among the artificially deformed skulls [6].

2. Adaptat ion t o cranial enlargement : According t o Jeant y et al., t he number of w ormian bones i ncr eases w i t h t h e capaci t y o f t h e sk ul l , regardless of t he cause of enlargement [7]. 3. Genet ic fact ors: According t o Barberini et al., t heir format ion might be under t he cont rol of a n um b er o f gen es and t hei r p h eno t y pi c expression is condit ioned by developm ent al t hresholds [8].

Present st udy carried out with 50 nos adult skulls from Tagore M edical College, among t hese 25 skulls (Fig. 1) from males and 25 from females (Fig. 2).

All t he skulls w ere carefully analyzed for t he sut ural bones in all t he four regions and w ere noted carefully and tabulated (Table-1). Based on t he st at ist ical analysis w as done for t he f em ale and m ale sku ll s. The r esu lt s w er e t abulat ed and com pared w it h occurrence of w ormian bones among Indian populat ion.

Fig. 1: Show ing 25 m ale skulls.

Fig. 2: Show ing 25 f em ale skulls.

Table 1: Show ing t he occur rence of sut ural bones in dif ferent point s bet w een m ale and f em ale skull.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

POINTS ON SKULL IN M ALE IN FEM ALE

BREGM A 0 0

LAM BDA 13 1

PTERION 8 7

ASTERION 35 19

TOTAL 56 27

By t his present st udy w e proved t hat sut ural bones are more among t he male skulls belongs t he Tamil Nadu t han in female w hich is exact ly t he opposit e of t he result s belongs t o Indian skulls w it h more w ormion bones in females. Bregma: As like skulls of ot her populat ion no sut ural bones w ere found in our st udy in t he bregma region of bot h in male and female skulls (Fig-3).

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Lambda: M ale skulls show n more sut ural bones-13, t han t he female-1, skulls in t his region (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Show ing lam bda w it h sut ur al bone.

Pterion: Bot h male-8, and female-7, skulls had more or less equal number of w ormian bones in t his point (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Show ing pt er ion w it h sut ural bones.

Asterion: This point show ed t he highest num-ber of w orm ian bones bot h in m ale-35, and fem ale-19 skul ls of Tam i l Nadu. But w hen compared w it hin them male skulls show ed more sut ural bones t han female skulls (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6: Ast erion w it h sut ural bones.

Totally a sum of 56 sut ural bones in males and 27 sut ural bones in females w ere found among 50 adult Tam il Nadu skulls. Generally m ale skulls w ere having more w ormian bones t han t he fem ale skulls am ong Tam il Nadu skulls present in Tagore M edical College. The incidence

of Wormian bones has varied w it h t he bias of t he report ing authors. Najjar suggested t hat t he incidence is low er in fet uses (11.3%) t han in adults (62.1% - 76.2%) [9]. Incidence of Wormian bones in humans vary from 8% t o 15% in a ran-dom populat ion and reaches 54% in a ment ally im paired populat ion [10].

Studies among the

Indian populat ion have show n m ore sut ural bones am ong fem ale skulls [4]. Our present st udy revealed more number of w ormian bones in m ale skulls among Tam il Nadu populat ion (Table-1).

CONCLUSION

ACKNOW LEDGEM ENTS

Along t he course of life or during some medical emergencies w e are in need t o take t he radio-graphs for analysis. During t hat period t he x ray may show some ext ra bones in t he skull ot her t han t he normal bones. There are possiblit ies for t he clinicians t o misint erpret it as a fract ure rat her t han sut ural bones [11]. St udy of t he w ormian bones and t heir occurrence in differ-ent point s and bet w een male and female put some light on t he radiographs t o give a good int erpret at ion in t imes of need.

Conflicts of Interests: None

REFERENCES

We are so t hankful t o t he Dean of Tagore M edi-cal College - Chennai, for provided us w it h t he necessary facilit ies t o conduct t he st udy. We are also t hankful t o t he t echnical st aff belongs t o t he depart ment of Anat omy for t heir kind help.

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