title: Investigation of the human bridging veins structure using optical microscopy.
abstract: In this paper, we investigated the brain-sinus junction and especially the bridging veins linking these two organs. Two types of optical microscopy were used: conventional optical microscopy and digital microscopy. We used thin histological sections prepared from a human brain, and stained with Masson's trichrome, hemalun and orcein. Finally we observed the path of the bridging vein inside the brain-skull interface. At smaller scales, wavy collagen fiber bundles were found and characterized inside the vein walls. Taking into account the orientations of the different sections with reference to frontal planes, we found that the bridging vein has a very complex geometry, which increases the difficulty to determine fiber orientations in its walls. Nevertheless, we found that collagen fiber bundles are mainly circumferentially oriented in the superior sagittal sinus walls. In this paper, we were able to characterize precisely the path of the bridging vein from the brain to the sinus, with different magnifications.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, IMFS, University of Strasbourg, 2 Rue Boussingault, 67000 Strasbourg, France. mathieu.nierenberger@etu.unistra.fr
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nierenberger
authors.forename: Renée
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolfram-Gabel
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Decock-Catrin
authors.forename: Nelly
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Boehm
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rémond
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.forename: Saïd
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahzi
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008853:Microscopy; D008875:Middle Aged; D054063:Superior Sagittal Sinus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014680:Veins / Q000033:anatomy & histology*