Introduction:

The radiological characteristics of the cisterns of the base are of interest in the diagnosis, evolution and prognosis of patients with traumatic injuries. Currently, their condition is an important predictive factor in patients with severe head trauma. For the most part they refer only to normal, compressed or absent cisterns.

Objective:

To determinate the normal measurements of the principal basal cisterns in a tomagraphy and their relation with age and sex.

Methods:

An analytical, cross-sectional study was carried out in a period of two months: March and April 2021, in joint work of the Neurosurgery and Imaging services of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech University Hospital in Camagüey province. The universe was made up of 101 patients over 18 years of age with skull tomographies without alterations. The study included the evaluation of simple CT images of the skull of patients with suspected cerebrovascular disease, study of late-onset epilepsy, confusional syndrome or cephalalgic syndrome. The crural, interpeduncular, ambiens and quadrigeminal cistern were evaluated. The measurements were always performed by specialists in Imaging and Neurosurgery with years of experience. The basic selection criterion was that the tomography was reported without alterations, regardless of age and sex.

Results:

The sample was 101 patients, 53 males and 48 females. The average width of the interpeduncular cistern was 5.5 mm, besides crural cistern averages 2.3 mm and the ambiens and cuadrigeminal cisterns average 3.1 mm and 5 mm respectively. The patients older than 60 years had major dimensions of the cranial cisterns.

Conclusions:

The width of basal cisterns could be change with age but not with sex. This is associated with brain physiological aging.

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