ABSTRACT
Objective: Brain weight varies with age and gender. It decreases with age and also in many diseases. This cross-sectional analytical type of study was carried out to establish normal standard in different age groups in weight of the brain and to see the difference between sexes of adult Bangladeshi people. Materials and Methods: A total of 70 postmortem human brains of adult age groups ranging from 22-58 years in male and 22-48 years in female were collected from the unclaimed dead bodies during postmortem at the autopsy laboratory in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, from January 2010 to December 2010. The samples were divided into four different age groups i.e. Group A (20-29 years), Group B (30-39 years), Group C (40-49 years) and Group D (50-59 years). The weight of the whole brain was measured and significant differences in weight of the whole brain between different age groups and between male and female were determined. Results: In male highest value of weight was 1326.67±41.53 gm in group A and lowest one was 1281.6±40.21 gm in group D. These values of female were 1235.56±48.51 gm in group A and 1197.14±38.61 gm in group C. Significant differences were found in mean weight of the whole brain in male and female in group A (p=0.001), B (p=0.001) and C (p=0.001). The difference of mean weight in different age groups was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The weight of the brain is higher in male than in female and it decreases with age.
ABSTRACT
The change in the number of Purkinje cells with increasing age is evident especially in disorders of fine movement, equilibrium, hypotonia, postural changes, and disturbances of voluntary movement. The present study was done to see the changes in the number of Purkinje cells per square mm in different age groups of Bangladeshi people. This cross sectional descriptive type of study was designed and done in the Department of Anatomy, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, from January to December 2010, which was performed on the cerebellum of 28 Bangladeshi people, collected during autopsy examination of unclaimed dead bodies from Department of Forensic Medicine. Paraffin blocks of cerebellum were cut at 5mm thickness and stained with routine Harris' Haematoxylin and Eosin (H & E) stain. Estimation of number of Purkinje cell was done by using the counting circle and examined under the light microscope. The mean ± SD of number of Purkinje cell was 160.71 ± 24.47 in group A (Age 20-29 years) and 152.20 ± 6.49 in group D (age> 50 years), the mean reduction was 2.5% per decade. Histological studies revealed the number of Purkinje cell per square mm decreased with age which was statistically significant and further cytological study of Purkinje cell with larger sample size is recommended.