Septal Aperture of the Humerus: Etiology and Frequency Rates in Two European Populations

Abstract

Analysis of the septal aperture was conducted on two documented European populations. Collections from the National Museum of Natural History Lisbon, Portugal, and University of Athens, Greece, were used for the study. Both collections are modern and documented for sex and age. The Portuguese sample comprises 297 individuals (149 males and 148 females) between the ages of 18 and 88. A septal aperture was observed in 50 individuals resulting in a frequency of 16.83%. The Greek sample comprises 117 individuals (68 males and 49 females) between the ages of 20 and 65. Twenty‐five septal apertures were observed, giving a frequency of 21.37%. Both populations had high frequencies which exceeded those observed in European countries in previous studies. Sex analysis shows that both samples confirm that septal apertures are more common in females. The Portuguese sample also supports that septal apertures are more common in the left humerus; however, the Greek sample had a higher frequency of bilateral cases. Measurements of the Portuguese sample were taken to determine whether robusticity correlates with presence of septal apertures. These measurements concluded that there was no difference in robusticity with presence or absence of a septal aperture, challenging previous studies. Anat Rec, 2019. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy Anat Rec, 303:1821–1830, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy

Olecranon aperture of the humerus: A morphometrical study

“…Therefore, we included the epicondylar width (EW) in our morphometrical analysis and compared the bones with or without septum, to check if there is any significant relation between the width of the distal epiphysis and the presence of the aperture, as already reported [5]. Mean EW in the bones with the OAH in present study was 58.97 ± 5.53 mm, which was not significantly smaller than in bones with the septum (61.03 ± 3.20 mm), so our data, supported by other researchers too [3,13], could not provide evidence that olecranon aperture is more frequent in gracile bones, thus not being in accordance with the robusticity hypothesis of the origin of the olecranon aperture.…”

“…Mean vertical diameter in our research was 3.33 ± 1.93 mm, which is smaller than pooled results (4.09 ± 0.86 mm on the right, 4.43 ± 0.83 mm on the left side) and majority of the reported data (4.86 ± 1.32 mm; 4.21 ± 1.29 mm; 3.81 ± 0.97 mm) [7,19,20], only to be compared to the right male humeri (3.27 ± 1.46 mm) in Portuguese population [13], left side bones in Indian sample (3.37 ± 1.25 mm) [6] and right apertures in Nigerian group (3.33 ± 1.04 mm) [18].…”

“…Previous studies reported that individuals with the OAH might present overextension in lax and very mobile elbow joint [1]. This hyperextension may be accounted on increased elasticity of the collagen fibers [13] or weaker triceps [23], but not on the size of the proximal ulna [13], as well as not on the strength of brachialis, which may indicate a supposed dominant role of the olecranon process in the OAH formation [23].…”

“…The thin lamina is present until the age of 7 years old, after which the bony septum may be absorbed and substituted by dense regular connective tissue [8]. The aperture is showed to be more frequent in women, on the left side [13]. There are many hypotheses on the origin of the OAH, based on mechanical features, robusticity, metabolic factors, genetics, and atavistic traits; yet none has offered an explanation plausible or convincing enough.…”

Documented skeletal collections in Greece: Composition, research, and future prospects

“…Besides the above methodological‐oriented works, the Athens Collection has been employed in the biocultural study of skeletal trauma patterns in contemporary Greeks (Abel, 2004) and the study of secular change in adult stature as a marker of socioeconomic changes in late 19th and early 20th century Greece (Bertsatos & Chovalopoulou, 2018). Finally, material from the Athens Collection has been used as part of larger European samples to examine the factors that control aspects of nonmetric postcranial variation (Bradshaw, Eliopoulos, & Borrini, 2019), propose novel ways of analyzing osteoarthritis (Calce, Kurki, Weston, & Gould, 2017), explore the potential effect of osteoarthritis on age‐at‐death estimates (Calce, Kurki, Weston, & Gould, 2018), and finally, to examine patterns of gene flow during the Neolithic transition (Brace et al, 2006). The digitization of the collection is currently under way in the context of the PhD dissertation by Mr Andreas Bertsatos.…”