Producción científica sobre traumatismo craneoencefálico en revistas estudiantiles cubanas. Enero de 2015-junio de 2021

Introducción: los traumatismos craneoencefálicos son un reto para los servicios de salud. Recibir desde pregrado una formación en su atención constituye una necesidad. Objetivo: caracterizar la producción científica sobre traumatismo craneoencefálico, publicada en revistas estudiantiles cubanas entre enero de 2015 y junio de 2021. Materiales y métodos: se realizó un estudio bibliométrico, descriptivo y retrospectivo. El universo estuvo constituido por nueve artículos, de los que se analizó tipología, año de publicación, cantidad de autores, provincia y centro de procedencia de los mismos, cantidad de referencias, cantidad de artículos por revista y número de veces citados. Resultados: el 77,8 % de los artículos fueron originales, y 2020 fue el año más productivo (55,6 %). El 44,4 % de los artículos fue firmado por cinco autores; el 32,4 % de los autores pertenecían a la provincia de Pinar del Río. La media de referencias por artículos fue de 19,9; el Índice de Price se encontró entre 0,45 y 0,82, con una media de 0,75. El 55,6 % de las publicaciones aparecieron en la revista Universidad Médica Pinareña, cuyos artículos también fueron los más citados (85 %). Conclusiones: la producción científica estudiantil sobre trauma craneoencefálico es baja, y la influencia y visibilidad de los artículos disponibles, atendiendo a la cantidad de citas, es pequeña.

Introduction: crania-encephalic traumas are a challenge for health services. Receiving training on their care since undergraduate studies is a necessity. Objective: to characterize the scientific production on crania-encephalic trauma published in Cuban student journals between January 2015 and June 2021. Materials and methods: a bibliometric, descriptive and retrospective study was carried out. The universe was constituted by 9 articles, of which typology, year of publication, quantity of authors, province and centers of origin, quantity of references; quantity of articles per journal and number of times cited were analyzed. Results: 77.8% of the articles were originals, and 2020 was the most productive year (55.6%). 44% of the articles were signed by five authors; 32.4% of the authors belonged to the province of Pinar del Rio. The average number of references per articles was 19.9; the Price Index was found between 0.45 and 0.85, with an average of 0.75. 55.6% of the publications appeared in the journal Universidad Médica Pinareña, the articles of which were also the most cited ones (85%). Conclusions: the student scientific production on crania-encephalic trauma is low, and the influence and visibility of the available articles, taking into account the quantity of cites, is small.

Ontogenetic growth in the crania of Exaeretodon argentinus (Synapsida: Cynodontia) captures a dietary shift.

Background: An ontogenetic niche shift in vertebrates is a common occurrence where ecology shifts with morphological changes throughout growth. How ecology shifts over a vertebrate's lifetime is often reconstructed in extant species-by combining observational and skeletal data from growth series of the same species-because interactions between organisms and their environment can be observed directly. However, reconstructing shifts using extinct vertebrates is difficult and requires well-sampled growth series, specimens with relatively complete preservation, and easily observable skeletal traits associated with ecologies suspected to change throughout growth, such as diet. Methods: To reconstruct ecological changes throughout the growth of a stem-mammal, we describe changes associated with dietary ecology in a growth series of crania of the large-bodied (∼2 m in length) and herbivorous form, Exaeretodon argentinus (Cynodontia: Traversodontidae) from the Late Triassic Ischigualasto Formation, San Juan, Argentina. Nearly all specimens were deformed by taphonomic processes, so we reconstructed allometric slope using a generalized linear mixed effects model with distortion as a random effect. Results: Under a mixed effects model, we find that throughout growth, E. argentinus reduced the relative length of the palate, postcanine series, orbits, and basicranium, and expanded the relative length of the temporal region and the height of the zygomatic arch. The allometric relationship between the zygomatic arch and temporal region with the total length of the skull approximate the rate of growth for feeding musculature. Based on a higher allometric slope, the zygoma height is growing relatively faster than the length of the temporal region. The higher rate of change in the zygoma may suggest that smaller individuals had a crushing-dominated feeding style that transitioned into a chewing-dominated feeding style in larger individuals, suggesting a dietary shift from possible faunivory to a more plant-dominated diet. Dietary differentiation throughout development is further supported by an increase in sutural complexity and a shift in the orientation of microwear anisotropy between small and large individuals of E. argentinus. A developmental transition in the feeding ecology of E. argentinus is reflective of the reconstructed dietary transition across Gomphodontia, wherein the earliest-diverging species are inferred as omnivorous and the well-nested traversodontids are inferred as herbivorous, potentially suggesting that faunivory in immature individuals of the herbivorous Traversodontidae may be plesiomorphic for the clade.

Investigating cranial morphological variation of early human skeletal remains from Chile: A 3D geometric morphometric approach.

OBJECTIVES: Archaeological and genetic research has demonstrated that the Pacific Coast was a key route in the early colonization of South America. Research examining South American skeletons >8000 cal BP has revealed differences in cranial morphology between early and late Holocene populations, which may reflect distinct migration events and/or populations. However, genetic, cultural, and some skeletal data contradict this model. Given these discrepancies, this study examines ∼9000 years of prehistory to test the hypothesis that Early skeletons have a distinct cranial morphology from later skeletons. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using 3D digital models, craniofacial landmarks, and geometric morphometric analyses, we compared Early Holocene crania (n = 4) to later Chilean samples (n = 90) frequently absent in continental assessments of craniofacial variation. PCA, Mahalanobis distances, posterior and typicality probabilities were used to examine variation. RESULTS: Two of the earliest skeletons from northern Chile show clear affinities to individuals from later sites in the same region. However, the hypothesis cannot be rejected as one Early individual from northern Chile and one individual from inland Patagonia did not always show clear affinities to coastal populations. DISCUSSION: Biological affinities among northern populations and other regions of Chile align with genetic and archaeological data, supporting cultural and biological continuity along the Pacific Coast. In Patagonia, archaeological data are in accordance with skeletal differences between the Early inland steppe individual and coastal populations. This study incorporates 3D methods and skeletal datasets not widely used in assessments of biological affinity, thus contributing to a critical body of research examining the ancient population history of western South America.

A quantitative approach for analysing bone modelling patterns from craniofacial surfaces in hominins.

Bone size and shape arise throughout ontogeny as a result of the coordinated activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, responsible for bone deposition and resorption, and growth displacements. The modelling processes leave specific microstructural features on the bone surface, which can be used to infer the mechanisms shaping craniofacial traits in extinct and extant species. However, the analysis of bone surfaces from fossils and archaeological samples faces some difficulties related to the bone loss caused by taphonomic factors, and the lack of formal methods for estimating missing information and comparing the patterns of bone modelling among several specimens and samples. The present study provides a new approach for the quantitative analysis of bone formation and resorption patterns obtained from craniofacial surfaces. First, interpolation techniques were used to estimate missing data on high-resolution replicas of the left maxilla in a sample of sub-adult and adult modern humans and sub-adult fossil hominins. The performance of this approach was assessed by simulating variable amounts of missing data. Then, we applied measures of dispersion and central tendency to represent the variation and average pattern of bone modelling within samples. The spatial interpolation resulted in reliable estimations of the type of cell activity (deposition or resorption) in the missing areas, even when large extensions of the bone surface were lost. The quantification of the histological data allowed us to integrate the information of different specimens and depict the areas with higher and lower variation in the bone modelling pattern of the maxilla among specimens. Overall, the main advantages of the quantitative approach used here for generating bone modelling patterns are the high replicability and the possibility of incorporating variation among specimens into the comparisons among samples.

Sex and ancestry assessment of Brazilian crania using semi-automatic mesh processing tools.

The present paper aims to test performances of semi-automatic tools for mesh-to-mesh processing while assessing sex and ancestry in documented human crania. The studied sample of 80 human crania, which originated in two documented Brazilian collections (São Paulo, Brazil) was digitized using photogrammetry and laser scanning. 3D cranial morphology was quantified by computing inter-mesh dissimilarity measures using in-house freeware FIDENTIS Analyst (www.fidentis.com). Numerical outputs were further processed using Discriminant Function Analysis and Canonical Variant Analysis in order to classify models into sex and ancestry groups. In addition, cranial morphology was described by a set of 37 landmarks, processed by a Procrustes analysis and confronted with the inter-mesh comparison. Patterns of sexual dimorphism and ancestral group-specific variation were interpreted using average meshes and further emphasized by employing advanced visualization graphics. The mesh-to-mesh processing was capable to detect shape differences related to sex and ancestry. The highest accuracy levels for sex determination were obtained for meshes representing the facial skeleton and the supraorbital region. For both, analysis correctly assigned 82.5% of the crania. Ancestry-related differences were manifested primarily in the global cranial features (observed accuracy rates reaching 63%). The advanced visualization tools provided a highly informative insight into sexual dimorphism and ancestry-related variation. While in the current state the technique cannot be considered suitable for being implemented into the everyday forensic practice, the extent of automatization proved to be perspective, especially for assessing skeletal features that cannot be properly quantified using discrete variables.

Testing the reliability of software tools in sex and ancestry estimation in a multi-ancestral Brazilian sample.

In the framework of forensic anthropology osteometric techniques are generally preferred over visual examinations due to a higher level of reproducibility and repeatability; qualities that are crucial within a legal context. The use of osteometric methods has been further reinforced by incorporating statistically-based algorithms and large reference samples in a variety of user-friendly software applications. However, the continued increase in admixture of human populations have made the use of osteometric methods for estimation of ancestry much more complex, which confounds one of major requirements of ancestry assessment - intra-population homogeneity. The present paper tests the accuracy of ancestry and sex assessment using four identification software tools, specifically FORDISC 2.0, FORDISC 3.1.293, COLIPR 1.5.2 and 3D-ID 1.0. Software accuracy was tested in a sample of 174 documented human crania of Brazilian origin composed of different ancestral groups (i.e., European Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians, and Japanese Brazilians and of admixed ancestry). The results show that regardless of the software algorithm employed and composition of the reference database, all methods were able to allocate approximately 50% of Brazilian specimens to an appropriate major reference group. Of the three ancestral groups, Afro-Brazilians were especially prone to misclassification. Japanese Brazilians, by contrast, were shown to be relatively easily recognizable as being of Asian descent but at the same time showed a strong affinity towards Hispanic crania, in particularly when the classification based on FDB was carried out in FORDISC. For crania of admixed origin all of the algorithms showed a considerable higher rate of inconsistency with a tendency for misclassification into Asian and American Hispanic groups. Sex assessments revealed an overall modest to poor reliability (60-71% of correctly classified specimens) using the tested software programs with unbalanced individual rates for males and females. The highest and atypically balanced rate of classification for sex assessment was provided by COLIPR software, which reached 78% of correctly assessed crania.

Metopismo: bases morfológicas, implicancias clínicas y reporte de caso / Metopism: morphologic basis clinical implications and case report

Durante la vida fetal y la infancia, los huesos planos de la bóveda craneal están separados por membranas densas de tejido conectivo que constituyen articulaciones fibrosas conocidas como suturas; las cuales tienen como objetivo durante los primeros estadios de la vida favorecer el desarrollo encefálico. Eventualmente estas suturas con el paso de los años se cierran formando una sinostosis entre los huesos del cráneo. Una de estas es la sutura frontal, que une los 2 huesos frontales en la época embrionaria y en el recién nacido. Esta sutura puede persistir en el tiempo generando el cuadro conocido como metopismo. Alteración que muestra distintas presentaciones e incidencias según sea el grupo étnico estudiado. El propósito de este artículo es mostrar las características que presenta esta condición, frecuencias, descripciones, variedades, etc., analizando distintas bases de datos, junto a la descripción de un caso. Se plantea la importancia que posee a nivel clínico a la hora de invadir quirúrgicamente esa zona, o la confusión que se puede presentar a nivel radiográfico lo cual eventualmente puede generar alguna complicación, por lo cual es de real relevancia el conocimiento de las bases morfológicas de esta condición con el fin de realizar un correcto diagnóstico y procedimiento quirúrgico si este lo amerita.

During fetal life and infancy, flat bones of the cranial vault are separated by dense connective tissue membranes, fibrous joints called sutures, which are aimed early on in life to promote brain development. Eventually these sutures close over the years to form a synostosis between the bones of the skull. One of these is the frontal suture, which joins the two frontal bones in the embryonic period and the newborn. This suture may persist over time, generating the condition known as metopism. Alteration showing different presentations and incidents depending on the ethnic group studied. The purpose of this paper is to show the features found in this condition, frequency, description, varieties, etc. This analysis was performed on different databases and the description of a case. It raises the importance that clinicians approaching the area at the time of surgery consider possible confusion at the radiographic level which can lead to subsequent complications. Therefore, real knowledge of the morphological bases of this condition is important for correct diagnosis and surgical procedure if warranted.

Macrometric and micrometric study of sexual dimorphism in foramina of middle crania fossa of adult Nigerians / Estudio macrométrico y micrométrico del dimorfismo sexual en foramina de la fosa craneal media en nigerianos adultos

We have measured the longitudinal, transverse diameters of optic canal, foramen rotundum, foramen ovale, foramen spinosum, to serve as a handy guideline to surgeons, to enhance the accuracy of sexing the cranium for anthropometric/medico-legal studies and for comparative analyses of values of the Nigerian population with those of the Caucasians. A total of 100 adult dry skulls 81 male, 19 female from departments of Anatomy of some Nigerian Universities were used. Automatic vernier caliper with a precision of 0.1mm was used. Data analysis was performed with Graph Pad Prism 3.0. A comparison was made of the means of the dimension using Student's T-test and analysis of variance. Sizes of foramina were not significantly different from that of Caucasians Our results show significant sexual dimorphism in the following parameters, the right transverse diameter of the FR in males was found to be significantly different from the females at p<0.05, there was a significant difference between the means of the left and right sides of the foramen ovale. The distance between right ovale and spinosum in males and females was found to be significantly different in both sexes. The effect of side on longitudinal diameter of foramen ovale FO of males showed a significant difference between the means of the left and right sides of the foramen ovale. A comparism of the distance between left optical canal and foramen rotundum showed a significant difference between the values obtained for males and the females at p< 0.05.

Hemos medido el diámetro longitudinal y transversal del canal óptico, agujero redondo, el agujero oval, agujero espinoso, para que sirva como una guía útil para los cirujanos, para mejorar la exactitud de la determinación del sexo del cráneo para estudios antropométricos y médico-legales y para realizar análisis comparativos de valores de la población de Nigeria con los de la raza blanca. Fueron utilizados 100 cráneos adultos secos 81 cráneos masculinos, 19 femeninos de los departamentos de Anatomía de algunas Universidades de Nigeri. Se utilizó un calibrador vernier automático con una precisión de 0,1 mm. Los datos fueron analizados con el gráfico Pad Prism 3.0. Se realizó una comparación de los medios de la dimensión utilizando T de Student y el análisis de la varianza. Los tamaños de los agujeros no fueron significativamente diferentes de la de los caucásicos. Nuestros resultados muestran dimorfismo sexual significativo en los siguientes parámetros, el diámetro transversal del derecho de FR en los hombres resultó ser significativamente diferentes de las hembras con una p <0,05, hubo una diferencia significativa entre las medias de los lados izquierdo y derecho del foramen oval. La distancia entre la derecha y oval espinoso en hombres y mujeres resultó ser significativamente diferente en ambos sexos. El efecto de lado en el diámetro longitudinal del foramen oval DE de los hombres mostraron una diferencia significativa entre las medias de los lados izquierdo y derecho del foramen oval. Una comparación de la distancia entre el canal izquierdo y agujero redondo óptica mostró una diferencia significativa entre los valores obtenidos para los machos y las hembras de p <0,05.