The cranial capacity of the Saudi population measured using 3D computed tomography scans

OBJECTIVES: To measure the cranial capacity of members of the Saudi adult population across ages and genders. METHODS: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that used 488 Computed Tomography (CT) scans of heads (of which 275 males) to measure cranial volume. The CT slices 0.625 mm thick were uploaded using the freely available software “3D-Slicer”, which then reconstructed the images and built a 3D module. RESULTS: The mean (±SD) cranial capacity of the males was 1481.6 (±110) cm(3) (range: 1241–1723 cm3), whereas the cranial capacity of the females was 1375.4 (±104) cm(3) (range: 1203–1678 cm3). This study showed that the males had a mean cranial capacity that was 7% greater than that of the females in this study. The average cranial capacity of the males between the ages of 31 and 40 years was statistically significantly larger to that of the males aged 61–80 (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that the average cranial capacity of the males was larger than that of the females. These study results can help to determine the normal cranial capacity of adults in Saudi Arabia. Further work should be carried out to aid in establishing reference data for the Saudi population.