Morphometric MRI evaluation of corpus callosum and ventricles in normal adults

The aim of this study was to determine the normal values of subregions of corpus callosum and ventricles in healthy adult people in our population using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to establish gender differences.

The MRI of 52 healthy individuals (29 females and 23 males) aged 20-50 years was obtained. The measurements were performed from MRI on a workstation. The midsagittal images were used for measurements of the subregions of corpus callosum and axial images were for lateral and third ventricles.

The mean values of the widths of genu, body, splenium, and height of the corpus callosum were 13·28±2·10, 7·64±1·07, 12·52±1·35, and 25·47±2·20 mm, respectively in females; whereas, the same measurements were 13·23±2·41, 6·89±2·12, 11·90±1·94, and 25·03±3·38 mm, respectively in males. Moreover, the mean value for the longitudinal dimension of the brain was 150·12±5·04 mm, while that for the corpus callosum was 71·27±3·70 mm in females. Additionally, the mean frontal horn width of the lateral ventricle and the transverse inner diameter of the skull were 34·06±3·05 and 130·76±6·71 mm in females and 34·03±2·78 and 129·96±10·61 mm in males, respectively. Due to these measurements, the values of Evans index which is reflecting the lateral ventricle enlargement were estimated to be 0·25±1·90 and 0·25±1·14 in females and males, respectively. According to our last measurement result, the mean values for the third ventricle width were 3·79±0·85 and 4·12±0·94 mm in females and males, respectively. These findings show that there are differences between the averages of some indices of corpus callosum of our population and the other populations.