The actual cause of elongation is poorly understood several theor

The actual cause of elongation is poorly understood several theories have been proposed. It could Tofacitinib Citrate JAK be due to growth of osseous tissue at the insertion of stylohyoid ligament or it could be due to calcification of stylohyoid ligament due to unknown process or due to persistence of cartilaginous analog of stylohyal.[9,10] There has always been a natural variation in the length of the styloid process as debated by various researchers. It has been previously reported that the normal radiographic length of the styloid process is 2-3 mm of which, the pathogenic importance is the spatial position of the tip of this process.[10] Kaufman et al.[11] states that, if the length of the styloid process is more than 30 mm on the radiograph it is considered as elongated.

In the present study, the styloid process, which were longer than 30 mm were included for evaluation. There are many variations of styloid chain, including the thickness of segments, angle and direction of deviation, length of process and degree of calcification.[12] Therefore, it is necessary to define the type of elongation and calcification of each styloid in order to describe its radiographic appearance. Hence, in order to simplify the description, Langlais et al.[7] had classified styloid process based on the type of elongation and calcification. Similar classification was followed in the present study to describe the morphology and calcification of the styloid process. The panoramic radiograph rather than computed tomography are used to detect if the styloid process is elongated.

[13] Similarly, in the present study panoramic radiographs were used to identify the elongated styloid process. The average length of the styloid process was 3.67 �� 0.62 cm with a mean age of elongation was 42.95 �� 16.62 in males and 37.6 �� 14.2 in female patients. There was a significant difference in the mean elongation of the styloid process between the age group of 20-29, 50-59, and above 60 years of age. These findings were in consistent with the study conducted by Gokce et al. in Turkey population.[14] In the present study, it was observed that there was an increase in the length of the styloid process with an increase in the age. These findings were in consistent with studies conducted by various authors.[15,16] It was also observed that the styloid processes were elongated more in males when compared to females and more on the left side when compared to right side.

However, these findings were not in consistent with studies conducted by various authors.[15,16,17] Type I morphology was the most common type of morphology observed in male patients. However, it was not statistically significant in AV-951 females. The calcified outline (a) was the common calcified pattern was seen in males and on the right side of female patients. Similar findings were noticed by Ilg��y et al. in term of most common type of elongated styloid process.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>