Cephalic perimeter changes during aging

• Grant number: 12/19962-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Renata Eloah de Lucena Ferretti-Rebustini
• Grantee: Juliana Oliveira Martins
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Aging is associated with morphometric cranioencephalic changes. Yet, is it still unclear if the changes in head circumference is because of the changes in the skull, following reductions in brain mass and volume, or if it results from the reduction of the scalp due to skin changes? Objective: to determine whether there is decreased head circumference during the aging and correlate it with the skull and cephalic skin changes, according to gender and age. Methods: the project was approved by the local ethics committee. The sample will consist of 240 autopsied cases, divided equally between gender and age, from the São Paulo Autopsy Service. The morphometric analysis will be performed from the measurement of head circumference, total skull circumference, the thickness of the scalp and of the skull. Once the objective is to evaluate the behavior of the variables as a function of cerebral aging without clinically manifested disease, all the cases with cognitive impairment will be excluded. The cognitive impairment will be analyzed by the clinical dementia rating scale (CDR). For statistical analysis, it will be used parametric and nonparametric tests depending on the selected variables, aim to identify correlations and the degree of significance. Thus, it will be considered significant p-values <0.05 for ± 5%. For statistics, it will be used the software SPSS v17,0. The results obtained may contribute to the gerontological clinical practice of sericulture.(AU)