Percentage ash weight of fetal skeletons
Trotter, M.
Growth 36(2): 145-153
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-4793 PMID: 5057057 Document Number: 50255
Skeletons from 123 American White and Negro foetuses of both sexes, ranging in age from 16 to 44 weeks, were ashed. The weight of the ash (mineral) as a proportion of the dry, fat-free weight of the bones (dry bone matrix and mineral) was estimated for the total skeleton and for 19 subdivisions of each: mandible, cranium, humeri, radii, ulnae, femora, tibiae, clavicles, scapulae, hand bones, foot bones, hip bones, ribs of both sides, 4 segments of the vertebral column and sternum. The mean percentage ash weight of the total skeletons and also the rank order of the bones from high to low were similar in each race-sex group, but the order was different from that in the adult. In each race-sex group there was a significant difference among the percentage ash weights of the bone series with some consistent patterns among the 4 groups; notably, the segments of the vertebral column and the sternum were higher than all other bones with the mandible, hand bones and foot bones at the low end of the range. There was a slight but significant rise in percentage ash weights with age for the total skeleton and for most of its subdivisions, but after adjustment for age differences among the race-sex groups no race or sex differences were found.