Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:33:50.874Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The sternalis muscle in the Bulgarian population: classification of sternales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2001

L. JELEV
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Histology, Medical University, BG-1431 Sofia, Bulgaria
G. GEORGIEV
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Histology, Medical University, BG-1431 Sofia, Bulgaria
L. SURCHEV
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Histology, Medical University, BG-1431 Sofia, Bulgaria
Get access

Abstract

The sternalis muscle (musculus sternalis) is the name usually given to this common anatomical variant, but the terms ‘episternalis’, ‘presternalis’, ‘sternalis brutorum’, ‘rectus thoracis’, ‘rectus sterni’, ‘superficial rectus abdominis’ and ‘japonicus’ have also been used in the literature (for reviews see Le Double, 1879; Calori, 1888; Pichler, 1911; Blees, 1968). According to Turner (1867), Cabrolius was the first, in 1604, to describe sternalis. Nevertheless this muscle is often unknown even in clinical practice (Bailey & Tzarnas, 1999; Vandeweyer, 1999).

Thus far, investigations on the incidence of sternalis have been made both in large populations such as the American (Barlow, 1935) and small populations, for example in Taiwan (Shen et al. 1992; Jeng & Su, 1998). In Europe, all studies on the frequency of this muscle have been made amongst subpopulations in Western (e.g. Cunningham, 1888; Le Double, 1890, 1897) and Northern Europe (Gruber, 1860) although the reported frequencies have been quite different. There is a lack of information about sternalis in Eastern European populations. We therefore present data from a study on the incidence of sternalis muscle in Bulgaria.

Type
Correspondence
Copyright
© Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)