Measuring the volume of the fourth ventricle in healthy Chinese adults of the Han nationality on the high-resolution MRI / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the normal range of the fourth ventricle volume of Chinese adults of the Han nationality and provide morphological data for the construction of database for Chinese Standard Brain.Methods This is a clinical multi-center study.One thousand Chinese healthy volunteers (age range= 18 to 70) recruited from 15 hospitals were divided into 5 groups, i.e., Group A (age range = 18 to 30),B (age range =31 to 40), C (age range =41 to 50), D (age range =51 to 60), and E (age range =61 to 70).Each group contained 100 males and 100 females.All of the volunteers were scanned by MR using T1 weighted three-dimensional magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo sequence.After three dimension data reconstruction, the volumes of the fourth ventricle were measured at sagittal view by automatic trace of Midobl.2 combined with manual outlining.The difference of volumes of the fourth ventricle between male and female were analyzed by independent sample t test, and among age groups by ANOVA.Pearson's correlation coeffcient was used to characterize the relationship between volumes of the fourth ventricle and age.Results The fourth ventricle volumes of Group A-E were (2.1±0.9), (2.1±0.8), (2.2±0.8), (2.1±1.0) and (2.4±0.8) ml respectively for male; those for female were(2.0±0.7), (1.9±0.6), (18±0.6), (1.9±0.7) and (2.0±0.6) ml respectively.The fourth ventricle volumes of males were significantly larger than those of females ( t = 5.573, P =0.000 ) ; there were no significant differences among the female groups ( F = 1.788, P = 0.130 ) ; there were significant differences among the male groups ( F = 2.639, P = 0.033 ) and multiple comparison found that the 60 years old was the watershed with significant difference ( P < 0.05 ).Correlation between the change of males' volumes and the ages was not strong (r = 0.119, P = 0.008 ), and the females' volumes did not correlated with their ages ( r = 0.041,P = 0.360 ).Conclusion There are gender differences in the fourth ventricle volumes of normal Chinese adults, and changes of the fourth ventricle volume with aging are different between males and females.