wormian bones

{{Short description|Extra bone pieces that can grow within a suture in the skull}}

{{Infobox bone

| Name = Wormian bones
(Sutural bones)

| Latin = ossa suturale

| Image = Wormian bones.svg

| Caption = Wormian bones compared to a normal skull

| Image2 = Wormian bones.jpg

| Caption2 =Skull of a 21-year-old man with Wormian bones

}}

Wormian bones, also known as intrasutural bones or sutural bones,[http://www.radiopaedia.org/articles/wormian-bones radiopaedia.org]{{cite book |last=Saladin |first=Kenneth |title=Anatomy & Physiology: The Unity of Form & Function |edition=4th |date=August 2006 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=0-07-331608-3 }} are extra bone pieces that can occur within a suture (joint) in the skull. These are irregular isolated bones that can appear in addition to the usual centres of ossification of the skull and, although unusual, are not rare.{{cite book |last=Gray |first=Henry |author2=Warren Harmon Lewis |title=Anatomy of the Human Body |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofhumanbo00grayrich |publisher=Lea & Febiger |year=1918}} They occur most frequently in the course of the lambdoid suture, which is more tortuous than other sutures. They are also occasionally seen within the sagittal and coronal sutures. A large Wormian bone at lambda is often called an Inca bone (os incae),{{cite journal |title=Radiological Case of the Month |url=http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/155/6/731 |pmid=11386967 |accessdate=2008-11-02 |doi=10.1001/archpedi.155.6.731 |year=2001 |last1=Parente |first1=K |last2=Mercado-Deane |first2=MG |last3=Brummund |first3=T |volume=155 |issue=6 |pages=731–2 |journal=Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine|doi-access= |url-access=subscription }} due to the relatively high frequency of occurrence in Peruvian mummies. Another specific Wormian bone, the pterion ossicle, sometimes exists between the sphenoidal angle of the parietal bone and the great wing of the sphenoid bone.{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/akramjfr/sutural.html |title=Sutural bones |author=Dr. Akram Abood Jaffar |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091021080333/http://geocities.com/akramjfr/sutural.html |url-status=dead |archivedate=2009-10-21}} They tend to vary in size and can be found on either side of the skull. Usually, not more than several are found in a single individual, but more than one hundred have been once found in the skull of a hydrocephalic adult.

Wormian bones are a marker for some diseases and important in the primary diagnosis of brittle bone disease: osteogenesis imperfecta.Glorieux FH, "Osteogenesis Imperfecta", Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology. 22:1, pp. 85–100. 2008

Wormian bones may also be seen in:[http://www.theradiologyblog.com/2012/04/wormian-bones-differential-diagnosis-6.html Wormian Bones: Differential Diagnosis #6], The Radiology Blog, published April 27, 2012

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