Title: Investigation of the critical geometric characteristics of living human skulls utilising medical image analysis techniques

Authors: Haiyan Li, Jesse Ruan, Zhonghua Xie, Hao Wang, Wengling Liu

Addresses: Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China. ' Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, USA. ' Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China. ' The 4th centre hospital of Tianjin, Tianjin 30022, China. ' Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China

Abstract: A non-invasive method has been developed to study and analyse the critical geometric characteristics of living human skulls based on CT scan images. The CT scan images were obtained from patients who were admitted to the hospital and needed a head CT scan diagnosis. The A-P length and breadth of the whole skull, the thickness of the frontal, parietal and occipital bones of 3000 living skulls were analysed in this study. The results have shown that the average thicknesses of the frontal, parietal and occipital bones were (in mm) 6.58, 5.37 and 7.56, respectively, for the male; and 7.48, 5.58 and 8.17, respectively, for the female. The A-P length and breadth of the skull were 175.81 and 145.35, respectively, for the male and 170.61 and 140.11, respectively, for the female. The thickness and the breadth of the human skull are not normally distributed; and in general, females have thicker skulls than males; but males have wider breadth and longer A-P length than females.

Keywords: living human skulls; anterior-posterior length; A-P length; breadth; skull thickness; biomechanical impact; CT scanning images; geometric characteristics; head impact injury; vehicle safety; biomechanics; head injuries; head impact tolerance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2007.016747

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2007 Vol.2 No.4, pp.345 - 367

Published online: 21 Jan 2008 *

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