A Digital Photogrammetric Study of the Corpus Callosum Using MRI in Sulaimani Normal Individuals

Abstract

AbstractBackground: Corpus callosal anatomy and physiology have been the interest of many studies due to the influence of this commissural structure on the performance of the brain in patients with intractable epilepsy undergoing callosotomy. Numerous conflicting studies have been published with respect to variations in the size of the corpus callosum relative to handedness, gender and age. Aim: This cross sectional study was carried out to examine the morphometric influence of these factors (sex, age and handedness) on the corpus callosum in normal adults.Subjects and methods: One hundred normal individuals, 36 males and 64 females, divided into 3 age groups were subjected to magnetic resonance imaging study of the brain. Of the 100 subjects, 7 females and 1 male were left handed. The brain magnetic resonance images of all subjects were digitalized using Auto CAD computer software to estimate the statistical correlation and ratio between the surface area of the corpus callosum and the medial surface of the cerebral hemisphere. Results and Discussion: The results showed no statistical significance of the effect of sex, age or handedness on the surface area of the corpus callosum but there was a statistically significant sexual dimorphism in the medial surface of the cerebral hemisphere, being larger in males. We attributed these results to the fact that cerebral cortical atrophy starts earlier in females while the surface area of the corpus callosum remains normal leading to a relative increase in surface area of the corpus callosum / medial surface of the cerebral hemisphere ratio in females and a proportionally larger medial surface of the cerebral hemisphere area in males. We, however, recommend future studies to include a larger sample size, greater number of left handed subjects and probably other influencing physiological or pathological factors.