Linear parameters of normal and abnormal cava septi pellucidi: A post-mortem study

Anatomical variations in the dimensions of different brain structures have been correlated with clinical syndromes. This study on the parameters of normal and abnormal cavum septi pellucidi (CSP) can be of clinical significance. We obtained 479 brains from autopsied persons (310 males and 169 females, 377 normal or asymptomatic and 102 abnormal or symptomatic persons, aged 22–89 years) and observed that 110 brains (75 males and 35 females) had CSP. These cava were classified into two groups depending on the past medical histories of the autopsied person: 40 asymptomatic and 70 symptomatic cava. We have defined symptomatic cava as those in autopsied persons who had known past medical history of psychiatric or neurological disease. Asymptomatic cava were in autopsied persons who had no known past medical history of psychiatric or neurological disease. The CSP parameters (length, width, depth) of the symptomatic and asymptomatic groups were measured and were statistically analyzed. Analysis showed that the cava in the symptomatic group were significantly longer and wider. Discriminant function analysis was used to derive a mathematical formula to classify CSP into an asymptomatic or symptomatic group based on length and width measurements of the cavum. Clin. Anat. 17:626–630, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.