Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
24
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-12-6
pubmed:abstractText
Wormian bones are accessory bones that occur within cranial suture and fontanelles, most commonly within the posterior sutures. They occur more frequently in disorders that have reduced cranial ossification, hypotonia or decreased movement, thereby resulting in deformational brachycephaly. The frequency and location of wormian bones varies with the type and severity of cranial deformation practiced by ancient cultures. We considered the hypothesis that the pathogenesis of wormian bones may be due to environmental variations in dural strain within open sutures and fontanelles. In order to explore this further, we measured the cephalic index (CI) in 20 purposefully deformed pre-Columbian skulls: 10 from Chichen Itza, Mexico, and 10 from Ancon, Peru, as well as 20 anatomically normal skulls used for medical school anatomy classes. We tested for a direct correlation between the CI and the number of wormian bones in skulls with varying degrees of brachycephalic cranial deformation and found no significant correlation. When the CI was grouped into three categories (normal (CI < 81), brachycephalic (CI 81-93), and severely brachycephalic (CI > 93)) there was a trend toward increasing number of wormian bones as the skull became more brachycephalic (P = 0.039). A second part or our study tabulated the frequency and location of large wormian bones (greater than 1 cm) in 3-dimentional computerized tomography (3D-CT) scans from 207 cases of craniosynostosis and compared these data with published data on 485 normal dry skulls from a manuscript on wormian bones by Parker in 1905. Among cases of craniosynostosis, large wormian bones were significantly more frequent (117 out of 207 3D-CT scans) than in dry skulls (131 out of 485). There was a 3.5 greater odds of developing a wormian bone with premature suture closure (P < 0.001). Midline synostosis, specifically metopic or sagittal synostosis, has more wormian bones in the midline, whereas unilateral lambdoidal or coronal synostosis more often had wormian bones on the contralateral side. Taken together, these data suggest that wormian bones may arise as a consequence of mechanical factors that spread sutures apart and affect dural strain within sutures and fontanelles.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Dec
pubmed:issn
1552-4833
pubmed:author
pubmed:copyrightInfo
(c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:day
15
pubmed:volume
143A
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
3243-51
pubmed:dateRevised
2008-5-21
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2007
pubmed:articleTitle
The morphogenesis of wormian bones: a study of craniosynostosis and purposeful cranial deformation.
pubmed:affiliation
Medical Genetics Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural