The prevalence of cervical ribs in a London population.
Cervical ribs are an important cause of neurovascular compression at the thoracic outlet. Previous studies have shown the prevalence of cervical ribs to be between 0.05 and 3%, depending on the sex and race of the population studied. We examined 1,352 chest radiographs to determine the prevalence of cervical ribs in a London population of mixed sex and ethnicity. Our study found that the overall prevalence of cervical ribs was 0.74% with a higher rate in females compared with males (1.09 and 0.42%, respectively). Of the 10 individuals with a cervical rib, five were on the left, three were on the right and two were bilateral. The presence of elongated C7 transverse processes (transverse apophysomegaly) was also noted. We found a total of 30 elongated transverse processes with an overall prevalence of 2.21%. They were also more common in females (3.43%) than males (1.13%).
Brewin
James
J
Department of Anatomy, Guy's King's and St Thomas's School of Biomedical Sciences, London, United Kingdom. james_brewin@hotmail.com
Hill
Martin
M
Ellis
Harold
H
D002573:Cervical Rib Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008131:London / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012272:Ribs / Q000002:abnormalities*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013901:Thoracic Outlet Syndrome / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology