MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VENTRICULAR BRAIN SYSTEMS IN THE ELDERLY AGE

Abstract

The introduction into medical practice of new methods of neuroimaging - computed and magnetic resonance imaging, has changed the principles of diagnosing morphological changes in the brain and opened up new horizons in the study of its structure. The literature sources provide conflicting and fragmentary data on the anatomical features and morphometric parameters of the parts of the brain, and especially its ventricular system, at different age periods of a person's life. The human brain is characterized by significant age-sex anatomical variability. It differs in men and women in different races, ethnic groups. Signs of difference persist from generation to generation and can be an important characteristic of the variability of the human brain as a species. However, the sex and age features of the structure of the cerebral ventricles, taking into account their individual anatomical variability, have not been sufficiently studied. During morphometric study of magnetic resonance tomograms a comprehensive in vivo characteristic of the cerebral ventricular system in elderly persons is presented. Gender peculiarities and inter-hemispheric asymmetry of relevant indicators are studied. The examinations were conducted in standard anatomical planes (sagittal, frontal and axial) in people with no visual signs of organic lesions of the brain and skull. 38 tomograms of elderly patients were analyzed 38 (14 men and 24 women). 13 indicators of the liquor system of the brain were studied and a significant increase of the following parameters were found in males: the length of the anterior horn of the right lateral ventricle, the length and width of the central part of the lateral ventricle both on the right and left, the length of the lower horn of the lateral ventricle on the left and right, and anterior-posterior size of the lateral ventricle on the right and left. Some of the parameters studied possessed reliable inter-hemispheric asymmetry, namely, in men on the left: the body width of the lateral ventricle, the length and width of the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle, anterior-posterior size of the lateral ventricle; in women – the length of the lower horn of the lateral ventricle on the right.