Morphometry of the Orbital Region: A Soft-Tissue Study from Adolescence to Mid-Adulthood

Abstract

The objective of this study was to gain information about normal sex-related linear and angular dimensions of the orbital region; left-right symmetry; and growth changes between adolescence and mid-adulthood. The three-dimensional coordinates of several soft-tissue landmarks on the orbits and face were obtained by an electromagnetic digitizer in 40 male and 33 female adolescents aged 12 to 15 years, 73 female and 89 male young adults aged 19 to 30 years, and 41 male and 38 female adults aged 31 to 56 years. From the landmarks-binocular and intercanthal widths; paired height and inclination of the orbit relative to both the true horizontal (head in natural head position) and Frankfurt plane; length and inclination of the eye fissure; and the orbital height to eye fissure length ratio were calculated and averaged for age and sex. Comparisons were performed by factorial analysis of variance. Both the linear dimensions and the angular values were significantly larger in male subjects than in female subjects of corresponding age (p < 0.05). A significant effect of age was found (p < 0.05): while the linear distances and the orbital height-to-length ratio were greater in older people of the same sex, the inclination of the eye fissure decreased as a function of age. Both orbital inclinations were larger in the young adult group than in the adolescent and middle-aged groups. On average, the paired measurements were symmetrical, with similar values within each sex and age group. Data collected in this investigation could serve as a database for the quantitative description of human orbital morphology during normal adolescent and adult growth.

Age- and sex-related changes in the normal human ear

“…Indeed, the ears are among those body structures that continue to grow along entire lifetime, well beyond the end of their organogenesis [3], and the attainment of skeletal maturity [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Therefore, as shown by both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, older people tend to possess bigger ears [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Unfortunately, the observation of the coexistence of two conditions is not sufficient to demonstrate their association.…”

“…Overall, quantitative data on the age-related changes in ear dimensions during growth, development and aging have been recently reported for Dutch Caucasian [2], German Caucasian [9], Italian Caucasian [6,7,11], North American Caucasian [5,28], Turkish Caucasian [1,19,26,27,29], Indian [10,12,30], Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jew [4], Japanese [8], healthy persons of both sexes.…”

“…For instance, ear position was investigated only between childhood and mid-adulthood [5,6,11,28]. Ear symmetry is often stated, but actual data were reported only between the second and the sixth decades of life [4,6,11].…”

“…For instance, ear position was investigated only between childhood and mid-adulthood [5,6,11,28]. Ear symmetry is often stated, but actual data were reported only between the second and the sixth decades of life [4,6,11]. Indeed, in contemporary western society, not only the number of aged persons is increasing, but also forensic investigations are currently performed on a wider age range than before, thus needing new reference data on each ethnic group.…”

Do the ears grow with age?

“…Other authors have studied the mean dimensions of normal auricles in a North America population [1], while Gualdi-Russo [2], Ferrario et al [3] and Sforza et al [4] published on the mean dimensions of the ear in a Caucasian Italian population.…”