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Morphometric characterisation of human tracheas: focus on cartilaginous ring variation

Premakumar, Y; Griffin, M; Szarko, M; (2018) Morphometric characterisation of human tracheas: focus on cartilaginous ring variation. BMC Research Notes , 11 , Article 32. 10.1186/s13104-018-3123-1. Green open access

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Abstract

PURPOSE: Details regarding tracheal anatomy are currently lacking, with existing literature focussing mainly on the cricoid-tracheal region or the carina. External gross anatomy and internal morphology throughout the entire trachea is important for normal physiological functioning and various clinical applications such as designs for tracheal implants or endotracheal devices. OBJECTIVE: To determine quantitative and qualitative characteristics of gross tracheal and individual tracheal ring anatomy. METHOD: 10 tracheas were harvested from formaldehyde-fixed cadavers. Tracheal length, height and inter-ring distance were measured from complete tracheas. Individual rings were excised and the following measurements were taken at three points on the ring: thickness, width, and antero-posterior (A-P) length. RESULTS: The average tracheal length was 10.38 ± 0.85 cm with a mean of 19 ± 3 rings per trachea. The average width and A-P diameter of tracheal lumens were 17.31 ± 2.57 and 17.27 ± 2.56 mm, with a width-AP ratio of 1.00 (‘C’ shaped ring). The A-P diameter shows a trend of narrowing slightly from the upper 1/3 to the lower 1/3 of the trachea. While majority of tracheal rings consisted of the expected ‘C’ shape, more than 41% of the 147 counted rings consisted of abnormally shaped rings which were further analysed. CONCLUSION: This study provides further details regarding tracheal anatomy which will be useful for implant design. Of interest for anatomists, is the marked variability in tracheal ring morphology which could be further characterised in larger studies.

Type: Article
Title: Morphometric characterisation of human tracheas: focus on cartilaginous ring variation
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s13104-018-3123-1
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3123-1
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Keywords: C-shaped ring, Human trachea, Tracheal anatomical variation, Tracheal anatomy, Tracheal ring
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10049423
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