A Radiographic Study to Evaluate the Course and Visibility of the Mandibular Canal in Darbhanga Population: An Original Research

Introduction: Mandibular canal or inferior alveolar canal isan important anatomical landmark in mandible which containsneurovascular bundles. Mandibular canal is considered asreference anatomical landmark in maxillofacial surgeries.The aim of this study was to evaluate the course and visibilityof the mandibular canal in Darbhanga (Bihar) populationon digital panoramic radiographs, and the objective was toassess the normal variation of mandibular canal on panoramicradiographsMaterial and Methods: A total of 500 panoramic radiographswere selected from the archives of our department as softcopies. The course of mandibular canal was evaluated onpanoramic radiographs. The collected data were subsequentlyprocessed and analyzed using SPSS statistical package version17.Results: We found that elliptic curve is most common curve.Visibility of mandibular canal is more in the third molarregion compared to first molar region. Conclusion: In thepresent study, most common curve was elliptic curve (64.8%)followed by linear curve (22.2%). Visibility of mandibularcanal in third molar region was 98.1%. In both gender, ellipticcurve was most common curve.

Automatic diagnosis of pectus carinatum for children based on the improved Haller index / 生物医学工程学杂志

Pectus carinatum (PC) is one of the most common chest wall anomalies, which is characterized by the protrusion of the anterior chest wall including the sternum and adjacent costal cartilages. Mildly patients suffer from mental problems such as self-abasement, while severely suffering patients are disturbed by significant cardiopulmonary symptoms. The traditional Haller index, which is widely used clinically to evaluate the severity of PC, is deficient in diagnosis efficiency and classification. This paper presents an improved Haller index algorithm for PC: first, the contour of the patient chest in the axial computed tomography (CT) slice where the most convex thorax presents is extracted; and then a cubic B-spline curve is employed to fit the extracted contour followed by an eclipse fitting procedure; finally, the improved Haller index and the classification index are automatically calculated based on the analytic curves. The results of CT data analysis using 22 preoperative and postoperative patient CT datasets show that the proposed diagnostic index for PC can diagnose and classify PC patients correctly, which confirms the feasibility of the evaluation index. Furthermore, digital measurement techniques can be employed to improve the diagnostic efficiency of PC, achieving one small step towards the computer-aided intelligent diagnosis and treatment for pediatric chest wall malformations.

Silhouette differences among cats do not suggest a general selection for paedomorphosis / 대한수의학회지

Paedomorphosis is the retention of juvenile morphology at maturity and is important in generating evolutionary change in domestic species and species in the wild. This preliminary study compared morphological characteristics of seven domestic cat pure breeds and felid species from around the world. An original procedure based on elliptical Fourier (EF) methods was applied to head lateral views of specimens and were assessed in order to analyse head profile. For comparative purposes three domestic kittens of different ages and three species of genus Lynx were also used. EF descriptors, allowed for the quantification of the head profile. Using the Fourier transform, reconstruction of the mean head profile revealed that there was a general shape difference between wild cats, domestic cats and kittens. Results suggested that variability in head profile differentiate quite well between adult cats and kittens, but domestic and wild cats appeared grouped into a similar cluster. The similarity between breeds can thus be attributed more to the general head profile than to flatness, i.e. to the general conformation rather than facial profile. Therefore, no effect of paedomorphism on the studied breeds can be undertaken. The present approach opens interesting ethnological perspectives for the aloidic characterisation for domestic breeds.

Prótesis ellitica en fracturas de cuello femoral en mayores de 60 años / Elliptic head prosthesis in patients older than 60 years

Elliptic head prosthesis was realized in 1972 to better reproduce the anatomic femoral head shape. Many functional anatomy studies showed that this shape fills better the acetabulum during walk. We evaluated 59 patients with femoral neck fracture treated with Ellitica prosthesis, with 2 years minimal follow up. We obtained good functional outcome in the 45,6 percent and excellent results in the 29 percent of the patients operated with elliptic hemiarthroplasty in patients older than 60 with intracapsular femoral neck fractures, with no revision surgery or dislocation.

La prótesis parcial de cabeza elíptica fue diseñada en 1972 para reproducir la anatomía de la cabeza femoral. Muchos estudios anatómicos muestran cómo este diseño encaja mejor con el acetábulo durante la marcha. Evaluamos 59 pacientes con fractura de cuello femoral tratados con prótesis Ellitica, con un seguimiento mínimo de 2 años. Se obtuvieron buenos resultados funcionales en el 45,6 por ciento de los casos y excelentes en el 29 por ciento, además no existieron cambios radiológicos en el 84 por ciento de los casos; todos ellos pacientes mayores de 60 años con fractura intracapsular de cuello femoral sin aparición de luxación ni necesidad de cirugía de revisión.

Inferring possible population divergence in Espeletia pycnophylla (Asteraceae) through morphometric and paleogeographic approaches

The phenotypic structure within and between plant populations is generally influenced by their distribution patterns in space and time; therefore, the study of their divergence is a central issue for the understanding of their microevolutive processes. We boarded the hypothesis that three populations of Espeletia pycnophylla show phenotypic divergence as one of the possible implications of their geographic isolation in the Southern Colombian Andes. We used the Elliptic Fourier Descriptors (leaf shape) and traditional leaf morphometry (leaf size) of 347 leaves to measure inter and intra-population variation and a comparison between a paleogeographic reconstruction with an actual estimate of the distribution areas of E. pycnophylla in order to identify their main changes during the last 14 000 years. The three populations showed significant differences in leaf morphometry and a positive correlation between the matrices of morphometric and geographic dissimilarities, indicating that the inter-population divergence increases between further populations, so that the morphometric structure reflects their spatial distribution. The geographical and paleogeographical estimates evidenced a conspicuous process of reduction and fragmentation of the distribution area of E. pycnophylla since the Late-Glacial until the Holocene. We suggest that these results support possible scenarios of vicariance events, which allow us to approach the divergence of these populations in terms of their historic biogeographic relations. However, genetic analyses are still needed to support these results. Rev. Biol. Trop. 58 (4): 1261-1270. Epub 2010 December 01.

La estructuración fenotípica entre y dentro de poblaciones vegetales responde generalmente a sus patrones de distribución espacio-temporales, por lo tanto, el estudio de su divergencia es un tema central dentro de sus procesos microevolutivos. En esta investigación abordamos la hipótesis que tres poblaciones de Espeletia pycnophylla presentan divergencia fenotípica como uno de los posibles efectos de su aislamiento geográfico en los Paramos del suroeste de Colombia. Utilizamos los Descriptores Elípticos de Fourier (forma foliar) de 117 hojas y algunas medidas morfológicas tradicionales (tamaño foliar) como indicadores de la variación intra e inter-poblacional, además de una comparación entre una reconstrucción paleogeográfica con una estimación del área de distribución actual de la especie para identificar sus principales cambios durante los últimos 14 000 años. Todas las poblaciones mostraron diferencias significativas y además, existió una correlación positiva entre las matrices de disimilitud morfométrica y geográfica, indicando que la divergencia incrementa entre poblaciones lejanas. Paralelamente, las estimaciones geográficas y paleogeográficas evidenciaron un proceso de reducción y fragmentación del área de distribución de E. pycnophylla desde el Tardiglacial hasta el Holoceno. Sugerimos que ambos resultados apoyan escenarios de posibles series de eventos de vicarianza para las poblaciones estudiadas y nos permiten entender su divergencia en términos de sus relaciones biogeográficas históricas.