Imaging of postnatal maturation of the skull base.
The skull begins to form when mesenchyme thickens and condenses around the developing brain. At the skull base, most of this mesenchyme derives from neural crest, and some arises from general head mesenchyme. This article reviews the patterns for maturation of the ossification, sutures, and synchondroses in the occipital, the sphenoid, and the orbitoseptal regions, and reports additional data derived from specific study of CT scans of the skull base in children and young adults.
Mann
S S
SS
Instructor, Section of Neuroradiology, Department of Radiology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York 10029, USA.
Naidich
T P
TP
Towbin
R B
RB
Doundoulakis
S H
SH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000254:growth & development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000502:physiology; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D009777:Occipital Bone / Q000254:growth & development; D009915:Orbit / Q000254:growth & development; D010012:Osteogenesis; D019291:Skull Base / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development*; D013100:Sphenoid Bone / Q000254:growth & development; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed