Age dependent changes of the diploe in the human skull

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to the investigation of age-related morphological changes in the diploe of the human skull. Comparative investigations were performed on 10 dried skulls of young and old individuals. Computer tomography was employed followed by filtering of the digital images to visualise more details of the inner structure of the calvarial bones. As a result of our analysis, we concluded that the diploe of the young individuals was homogenous cancellous bone, which tightly fills the space between the outer and inner tables of the calvarial bones. The diploe of the older individual is more porous, showing a trace of sclerosis and with lacunas. Its texture is more scattered in the images and presents a higher level of degradation. The structural differences of the diploe in the skulls of older individuals can be due to a process of involution related to a diminishing of trabecular density in the cancellous bone. These processes are usually accompanied by fluctuations in the mineral components.