CHARACTERIZATION OF CERTAIN SUPRA AND INFRA TENTORIAL BRAIN ANATOMY -MRI BASED STUDY

Nagwan Elhussein and Dr. Caroline Edward Ayad*

ABSTRACT

Many neuroanatomical studies of normal brain development have been reported. Investigations of aging effects on the supra and infra tentorial anatomical structures are important, not only to understand normal aging process, but also for comparative study of brain disorders. Sex differences in neuroanatomy have been observed in several studies. In this study, our purpose was to assess the sex differences and the age-related areas changes of both supra and infra tentorial anatomical structures on midsagittal MRIs. Midsagittal MRIs of 100 normal individuals were evaluated in this study. The sample included both genders, 43(43% were males) and 57(57% were females), their ages were between <10˃61 years old. The infra tentorial anatomical structure including the posterior vermis, declive, folium, and tuber cenerium, anterior vermis and brainstem areas. For the supra tentorium brain anatomy, the cerebrum area ,corpus callosum area (CC)and index have been evaluated in both genders. Calculation of the area of both supra and infra anatomical structures was performed and the collected data were statistically analyzed by using SPSS software. Students’t test was applied for gender comparisons. To determine the associations between age, gender and both regions, pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. For infra tentorial anatomy significant sex difference was found in the mean Anterior Cerebellar at p= 0.006 favoring males with larger area than females whereas no significant difference was recorded in other structures. For the supra tentoruim brain anatomical structure; significant sex difference was found in the mean Cerebrum Area at p=0.001with no significant difference was recorded in the other variables Significant reduction with increasing age were detected in means of declive, folium, and tuber, anterior vermis , brainstem, of CC area and index at p=0.000, 0.004, 0.000,0.001 and 0.000 respectively. The supra tentorial anatomical structures areas development are significantly correlated with infra anatomical structures. Normative values for supra and infra tentorial anatomical structures were established.

Keywords: brain, supratentoria, infratentoria, MRI.