Incidence of different morphological types of sella turcica: Cephalometric study

Introduction: Sella turcica (ST) is a saddle-shaped structure located on the intracranial surface of the sphenoid bone in the middle cranial fossa. The sella turcica serves as an important anatomical reference in orthodontics partly because the s-point, placed centrally in the sella region, is a central fix point in cephalometric analysis and partly because the contour of the anterior wall is used in evaluation of craniofacial growth. Morphologically, three basic types - oval, round, and flat - have been classified, the oval and round types being the most common. Aim and objectives: To describe the predominant morphological shape of sella turcica. Materials and methods: Prospective clinical study which was conducted in the Postgraduate Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology of Government Dental College and Hospital Srinagar. This prospective study included total of digital lateral cephalometric radiographs of 180 patients (90 males and 90 females) between 12-65 years of age, Digital lateral cephalometric radiographs were taken by using CARESTREAM SC8100 machine Results: Morphology of sella turcica was found to be typical in just 33.9% of cases. Within the atypical sellae most had oblique anterior wall (27.2%), followed by double contour of the floor (15%), pyramidal shape (14.4%), irregular dorsum sella (6.7%) and bridging (2.8%). Conclusion: Morphological types of sella turcica in this study can be used as reference for additional investigators such as radiologists, orthodontists, maxillofacial surgeons, and neurosurgeons to interpret and plan surgical procedures involving the sellar region

Rizwan Hamid, Altaf Chalkoo, Saima Tariq, Sheikh Bilal, Suhail Wani

The leiomyoma is a benign smooth-muscle neoplasm commonly found in the female genital tract, gastrointestinal tract, or skin. Leiomyomas of the oral cavity are unusual. Oral leiomyomas are uncommon due to the paucity of the smooth muscle in the mouth (except in blood vessels) and thus the involvement of jaw bones is extremely rare. Leiomyomas have been classified as solid angiomyoma, angioleiomyoma (vascular leiomyoma), and epithelioid variants. Angioleiomyomas are benign mesenchymal tumors derived from smooth muscle, which rarely occur in the oral cavity. Malignant transformation probably does not occur but careful histopathologic examination is still necessary to differentiate these benign lesions from their malignant counterparts due to different prognosis. Although uncommon in the maxilla and mandible, they should be included in the differential diagnosis of radiolucent lesions of jaw bones. An extensive search of literature was carried out on the Medline-PubMed and Google Scholar database using the keywords such as leiomyoma, angioleiomyoma, jaw bones, maxilla, mandible, intra-osseous to thoroughly search and collect all the reported cases of intraosseous leiomyoma (but our search was not limited to these terms only). To the best of our knowledge, only 23 cases of intraosseous leiomyomas have been reported so far in the jaw bones, among which only 8 belonged to angioleiomyomas. Herein, we report the 9th case of intraosseous angioleiomyoma, one of the variants of leiomyoma and overall 24th intraosseous leiomyoma in a 6-year-old female child, together with conventional histopathologic and immunohistochemical findings

Isolated angiokeratomas of the tongue: A rare entity

Angiokeratomas consist of ectasias of dermal capillaries associated with an acanthotic and hyperkeratotic overlying epidermis. These dark red-to-purple, papular vascular anomalies can vary considerably in size, depth, and location. It is a skin disorder that rarely involves oral cavity. It can occur in localized or generalized form and is often associated with underlying metabolic disorder such as Fabry's disease and fucosidosis. It has many clinical variants with the same underlying histopathology. Mucosal involvement, including the oral cavity, is occasionally found either as a component of the systemic variety, called angiokeratoma corporis diffusum, or associated with cutaneous lesions in more locations. Isolated oral involvement seems to be rather infrequent, and only eighteen cases have been described in the world literature thus far. Isolated multiple angiokeratomas of tongue without plaque formation have been reported only four times before this. Here, we report a fifth case of isolated multiple angiokeratomas of tongue in a 16-year-old female which was confirmed by immunohistochemical pattern in consonance with a blood vessel origin, with expression of CD31, CD34, and von Willebrand factor. The lesion did not express D2-40 and CD45. No other malformation or metabolic disorder was found in the patient.

Sexual dimorphism using mandibular canine in establishing sex identity among Kashmiri population – A clinical study

Gender determination in forensic investigation is of immense medico legal importance especially in mass disaster. Teeth are excellent tools for identification as they are resistant to physical and chemical agents. The aim of the present study was to investigate gender dimorphism by measuring the linear dimensions of mandibular canine width and inter canine width among Kashmiri population. The study consists of 125 subjects selected from outpatient clinic of oral medicine and radiology, 64 were males and 61 were females. The age groups selected were in range from 18-24 years. There was statistically significant difference in canine width on right and left sides and inter canine distance between males and females (p value less than 0.05). These parameters can be helpful in determining the gender of the unknown deceased person in forensic investigations among Kashmiri population