title: Developing an anatomical model of the human laryngeal cartilages from magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: The purpose of this work was to construct a three-dimensional anatomical framework of the cartilages of the human larynx. The framework included representative surface models of the four laryngeal cartilages and estimated attachment points for the intrinsic laryngeal muscles. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to scan one female and four male human cadaveric larynges. The cartilages were segmented manually from the MRI volume for analysis. Two of these larynges were subsequently dissected and the landmark distances on the cartilages measured for comparison with the MRI measures and previous studies. The MRI measures were 8% smaller than the anatomical measures and 12% smaller than data reported in the literature. A laryngeal coordinate system was defined using the plane of symmetry of the cricoid cartilage. Measures of cricoid cartilage symmetry had less than 3% difference between the two sides for a series of measures. An algorithm for registering larynges that minimized the root-mean-square distance between the surface of a reference cricoid cartilage and the surfaces of nonisotropically scaled candidate cricoid cartilages was evaluated. This study provided an anatomical framework for registering different larynges to the same coordinate space.
authors.affiliation: Laryngeal and Speech Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1416, USA.
authors.forename: W Scott
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Selbie
authors.forename: Sally L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Gewalt
authors.forename: Christy L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Ludlow
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D001193:Arytenoid Cartilage / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003413:Cricoid Cartilage / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007817:Laryngeal Cartilages / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007821:Laryngeal Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D013957:Thyroid Cartilage / Q000033:anatomy & histology