PLANIMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF CORPUS CALLOSUM SAGITTAL PROFILE IN MIDDLE- AND ADVANCED AGED MEN.

The sagittal profile of the corpus callosum is available for morphometric measurements of conditioned linear distances when elucidating its age-related changes and sexual dimorphism. But in this case, the opportunity to determine the total area of the sagittal profile of the corpus callosum is lost, while being a more full expression of its digital characteristics. We set the goal to establish the differences between planimetric indices of male corpus callosum of the first and second periods of adulthood and the advanced age. The work used 65 brain preparations of men aged 22 to 73 years who died for reasons unrelated to the pathology of the central nervous system. After a two-week fixation in a 10% solution of neutral formalin, the brain was dissected along the longitudinal sagittal fissure into two hemispheres, one of which was used to photograph its medial surface with an overlaid scale ruler. The received standardized photos were used to determine the basic metric parameters and conduct a planimetric study of the sagittal profile of the corpus callosum using the Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended computer program. The overall evaluation of the results of planimetric analysis of the male corpus callosum sagittal profile we directed attention to the fact that within each age group there is a wide scatter of individual digital values of its area as well as random and irregular nature of their distribution that is completely independent of the intra-group age chronology. Thus, in the first period of adulthood, the minimum value of the area of the corpus callosum sagittal profile is 560 mm2, while the maximum value is 930 mm2 (the average statistical value is 747.5 ± 110.4 mm2). In the second period of adulthood, somewhat lower indicators are indicated; if the minimum value of it is equal to 412 mm2, then the maximum value is 868 mm2 (the average is 684.7 ± 130.0 mm2). In the advanced age, we find them in the range between 441 and 867 mm2 (the average value is 650.2 ± 121.9 mm2), which is approximately comparable to the previous period and noticeably different from the value of the first period of adulthood. At present, there is still no sufficient reason to draw a final conclusion about the beginning of involutive processes in the corpus callosum at the above stage of development, which is considered stable in the development of the brain and the most productive in terms of intellect. However, we can consider the existing general tendency to a slight decrease of the male corpus callosum when approaching the advanced age.