title: Fractal dimensions of the sagittal (interparietal) sutures in humans.
abstract: Traditional studies of the cranial suture morphology have focused mostly on visual estimation and linear measurements, and thus on evaluating their complexity. This paper presents a new look on cranial sutures as curves, which can be analysed by fractal dimension. This new measure seems to be a much better method of expressing properties of sutural patterns than traditional methods. Our findings suggest that the fractal dimension of non-complicated interparietal sutures slightly exceeds the topological dimension of the line, that is 1.0, whereas the fractal dimension of complicated sutures may reach a value of 1.4 or even more. The difference between the minimum and maximum decimal fraction of the fractal dimension indicates a three-fold increase in complexity in the investigated sutures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. jskrzat@poczta.onet.pl
authors.forename: Janusz
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skrzat
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Walocha
mesh_terms: D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D017709:Fractals; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D010294:Parietal Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology*