engleski

Auditory ossicles development in fetal life

Background: The middle ear contains three auditory small serious ossicles, which are, in order from the eardrum to the inner ear: malleus, incus, and stapes. Studies have shown that ossicles ossify endochondrally as a parts of Meckel´s cartilage, that are attached to the jaw. Anatomy of ossicles in adult humans was described in different studies. In a contrary to the adult studies there are only few dana available about ossicles dimensions during fetal life. The aim of our study was to investigate the dynamic of growth process of ossicles in fetal skulls. Materials and methods: In this experiment we used 30 ossicles from bone collection of the Department of Anatomy, University of Zagreb. Bones were scanned by microCT and for bone volume analysis CTAn software was used. Bones were divided in three groups based on fetus length: 300, 400, and 500mm. Results: Average incus and malleus bone volume in all groups was increased in accordance with the fetal linear growth. Average stapes bone volume in 500mm fetus length showed a dynamic growth. In other two groups bone volume was without significant change. Conclusion: In conclusion, we showed that stapes increased in size when fetus gained 500mm, while incus and malleus enlarges linearly during whole fetal period.

auditory ossicles; micro CT

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