Antropological measurement of the calcaneus

Transfer of the forces from the trunk to the lower extremities end on calcaneus which transports these forces to the pad, and that is why it is very important to research this bone. This study was done on 57 calcaneal bones of the osteological collection of the Department of Anatomy "Drago Perović" Zagreb School of Medicine and Department of Anatomy Osijek School of Medicine. The intention was to notice the regularity of the relations between specific dimensions and bone mass and structure, which is of great importance for understanding interrelation between biomechanical parameters of calcaneus and development of involutive changes. In this study geometrical parameters of the calcaneus have been defined, so length of the whole bone and especially frontal and back part, width, height, weight of dry bone, volume, geometrical surface of lateral and longitudinal cross section have been measured on every anatomical specimen. --Mean value, standard deviation and standard error have been calculated for every measured parameter. Positive correlation between most of the parameters of the calcaneus and negative correlation between specific weight and surface of cross section have been found. Coefficient of variation is the highest for weight, and the smallest for width.