Resumo

TORRES PAZMINO, Julio César  e  MARRUGO PARDO, Eduardo. Relationship between vocal cord length and hystological composition of the lamina propria in pediatric larynxes. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2009, vol.57, n.3, pp.236-245. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. The macro and micro-architecture of an infant’s vocal cord differs notably from that of the adult, and it has been demonstrated that during the maturation process there are mechanisms that occur until a given age. However, there is yet no mention of a clinical tool that would allow the assessment of these changes and could be applied to pediatric phono-surgery. Objective. To assess the relationship between vocal cord length and histological composition of the lamina propria in pediatric larynxes. Materials and methods. Cross-sectional study of histological specimens of vocal cords with different lengths. Microscopic images were studied with coloranalysis software and statistical analyses were performed using SPSS® 17.0 for Windows. Results. In 22 specimens of lamina propria from the middle third of the vocal cord, we evaluated cellularity, randomness of the distribution of fibers, presence of glands and abundance of blood vessels. The percent of collagen fibers depended in 38.9 percent (p = 0,04) on the length of the vocal cord, the corresponding percentage for elastic fibers was 26.4 percent (p = 0,061). Conclusions. There seems to be no direct correlation between the percent of collagen and elastic fibers and vocal cord length in children. Among prominent histological features we found the presence of abundant glands and blood vessels at the middle third of the vocal cord.

Palavras-chave : vocal cord; mucous membrane; child; preschool; child welfare.

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