Murlimanju B V, Nair Narga, Pai Mangala M, Krishnamurthy A, Chandra Philip X
Department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Mangalore, India.
Rom J Morphol Embryol. 2010;51(2):347-51.
The objectives were to study the morphology of the medial menisci in human fetal knee joints and to verify the developmental etiology of the discoid meniscus.
The study was carried out on 106 fetal knee joints and the morphological variants of the shapes of the medial menisci were macroscopically noted and classified.
From our observations, 46.2% of the medial menisci were crescentic shaped, 23.6% were sided V-shaped, 13.2% had sided U-shape, 9.4% of them were sickle shaped, and 7.5% were C-shaped. In 54.71% of the cases, the medial meniscus shape was different on either side knees of the fetuses. No discoid medial menisci were seen.
The majority of the knees were having crescentic or semi lunar shaped medial menisci and the shape of the medial meniscus was different on right and left side knee joint of the fetuses in more than fifty percent of the cases. The observations favor Kaplan's theory, as there were no discoid medial menisci observed from the fetuses of various gestational ages. Even the youngest fetus (CRL 88 mm, 14 weeks of gestation) exhibited the medial tibial plateau incompletely covered by the menisci, which did not exhibit the discoid shape. The discoid meniscus must be an abnormal finding and is due to abnormal morphogenesis.
研究人类胎儿膝关节内侧半月板的形态，并验证盘状半月板的发育病因。
对106个胎儿膝关节进行研究，宏观观察并分类记录内侧半月板形状的形态学变异。
通过观察，46.2%的内侧半月板呈新月形，23.6%呈单侧V形，13.2%呈单侧U形，9.4%呈镰刀形，7.5%呈C形。在54.71%的病例中，胎儿双侧膝关节的内侧半月板形状不同。未发现盘状内侧半月板。
大多数膝关节的内侧半月板呈新月形或半月形，超过50%的病例中胎儿左右侧膝关节内侧半月板形状不同。这些观察结果支持卡普兰理论，因为在不同孕周的胎儿中均未观察到盘状内侧半月板。即使是最年幼的胎儿（头臀长88mm，妊娠14周），其内侧胫骨平台也未被半月板完全覆盖，且未呈现盘状。盘状半月板必定是一种异常表现，是形态发生异常所致。
