title: Radiological patterns of the bony roof of the superior semicircular canal.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the radiological patterns of the bony roof of the superior semicircular canal with a view for obtaining readily applicable conclusions.
  
  
  METHODS
  84 patients (163 petrous bones) have been studied by Multi-slice Helical Computed tomography (Philips Brilliance 6). We have determined the distribution of the different types of bone cover of the superior semicircular canal, taking some previously notified, standardised measurements of normality as reference.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the analysis of the roof of the superior semicircular canal, we have distinguished five different types, depending on their thickness and tomodensitometric aspect. Normal pattern in 121 cases (74.2 %), with a thickness of between 0.6 and 1.7 mm, papyraceous pattern or fine thickness ≤0.5 mm that appears in 23 of our cases (14.1 %), thick pattern ≥1.8 mm that we have observed in 11 cases (6.7 %), and pneumatised pattern in 5 cases (3.1 %), which is characterised by having supralabyerinthine cells. Finally, a dehiscent pattern was observed in three cases (1.8 %).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We describe five patterns of superior semicircular canal roofs: normal, thick, papyraceous, pneumatised and dehiscent. The papyraceous type and the dehiscent type would be subject to producing pathology, and in some cases the latter could be a consequence of the former.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy and Histology, School of Medicine, University of Zaragoza, C/Domingo Miral, s/n, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain. aicisner@unizar.es
authors.forename: Ana Isabel
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Cisneros
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Whyte
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Obón
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Whyte
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crovetto
authors.forename: Miguel Ángel
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Crovetto
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012665:Semicircular Canals / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors; D013701:Temporal Bone / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D036542:Tomography, Spiral Computed / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods