Morphometric Measurement of Cranial Vault Thickness: A Tertiary Hospital Based Study

Abstract

Introduction: The skull’s main function is to protect the brain. Total skull bone thickness is the total thickness of diploe and the external and internal tables. The measurement of the human skull based on CT images results are of great practical value in the fields of anatomy, clinical medicine, biomechanics study and head injury analysis. There are few literatures about imaging assisted measurement of the cranial vault thickness while sparse literature among Nepalese population. In this study, we aim to measure the thickness of Nepalese calvarian bones and find the difference between gender and ethnic groups.Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in our center during a period of 6 months. Patient of age 15 to 50 years with normal CT finding were included in the study. Using the axial view of brain CT, the thickness of cranial vault was measured and recorded in millimeter. Results: Among 100 patients, 51 were male and 49 were female. Mean thickness of frontal bone, parietal, temporal and occipital bone were 8.02±1.97 mm, 7.04±1.43 mm, 4.71±1.34 mm and 7.98±2.47 mm respectively. Conclusions: There was no significant difference in cranial vault thickness among sex or ethnical groups in patients of a hospital. Keywords: cranial vault; ethnicity; Nepalese; thickness.