Investigations into human tracheal cartilage osseocalcineus metaplasia. I. Radiographic findings.

Osseocalcineus metaplasia (OCM) of the tracheal cartilages is well known, but no exact data are available relating it to age and sex. To resolve this problem we analysed tracheal teleradiograms of 99 female (age: 0.4-92; x = 59.98 +/- +/- 22.75 years) and 110 male patients (age: 0-83; x = 53.53 +/- 19.95 years). As the first step we estimated the percentage of trachea that had complete lesions, those that had trace lesions and those that were unchanged in relation to the patient's age and sex. Secondly we determined the extent and growth of developing lesions during the process of ageing. Data were collected for all the cartilages, with two cartilages with trace lesions considered to be of similar value to one cartilage with complete remodelling. This enabled us to determine the correlation coefficient for changed cartilages and patient age and also the dynamism of OCM in the trachea examined. The chi2 and Student's t tests were used in determining the mean differences between subgroups. The lesions referred to above occurred in 66.35% of men and in 33.33% of women and correlated with age (r = 0.93, p < 0.001 in men, and r = 0.27, p < 0.01 in women). Total remodelling of the OCM occurred in the oldest age group, when both sexes were taken into consideration, while cartilages with trace changes were detected in the younger group of patients. The lowest mean patient age was observed in the group without tracheal changes. Osseocalcineus metaplasia of the tracheal cartilages was conditioned by patient age and sex. In male patients it occurred twice as often as in females. Until the age of 50 it occurred as much as nine times as often, while after this age it occurred only twice as often as in female patients.