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KMID : 0376219740110010297
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Chonnam Medical Journal
1974 Volume.11 No. 1 p.297 ~ p.311
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Ossification and Growth of the Distal Femoral Epiphysis in Human Fetuses and Children
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Abstract
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In order to investigate the fundamental changes in the distal femoral chondroepiphysis and the relation between the cartilage canal and endochondral ossification process, histological and radiological studies were made on forty-five human fetuses ranging from 60 mm to full term and sixteen children from one month after birth to seven-year-old.
The results were summarized as follows.
l. The first morphological and radiographical evidence of developing secondary center of ossification in the distal femoral chondroepiphysis was found at 360 mm fetus. Ossification center was in the form of multiple foci of calcification. Initial calcification occurred immediately adjacent to the end of a cartilage canal and not an avascular matrix.
2. Once the bony center appeared, ossification along the articular side of the secondary center was different from that along the metaphyseal side. The hypertrophied chondrocytes of the articular side were not distinctly parallel and intercellular matrix mineralized in all directions. As the secondary center expanded toward the metaphyseal side, many chondrocytes did not degenerate. With the progressive development of the secondary ossification center, the epiphyseal plate became well differentiated and showed a typical zonal differentiation.
3. In the youngest child the perichondrial ring (membrane) extended well beyond the advancing trabeculae of the metaphysis and in the seven-year-old it extended only slightly beyond the adjacent trabeculae. Throughout the period of active bone growth the dense cell layer of the perichondrial ring was demonstrated. These results were the evidence to support the previous suggestion, that transverse diameter of the epiphyseal plate increased by appositional growth from the overlying perichondrium and that the same source was responsible for lateral extension of the articular cartilage during growth.
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