Yasser Aladdin, MD James Scozzafava, MD, FRCPC Taim Muayqil, MD Maher Saqqur, MD CLINICAL PEARLS 1. The palatal myoclonus in symptomatic cases is usually silent as the involved muscle is the levator veli palatini. This is in contrast to the audible clicking sound (generated by the synchronous collapse of the eustachian tube) in patients with essential palatal myoclonus in which the involved mus...

BACKGROUND Human identification is one of the most challenging subjects that man has been confronted with. The fingerprints and DNA comparison are the most commonly used techniques in human identification. Palatoscopy is one of the recently developing methods to identify a victim-based on the palatal rugae pattern. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to analyze the different rugae pa...

objective: To determine the number and pattern of palatal rugae in Nepalese subjects and to find the association of gender with the number and pattern of palatal rugae. Materials & Method: 200 Nepalese subjects comprising of 100 male and 100 female were randomly selected and their maxillary casts were examined for the palatal rugae length applying the classification proposed by Thomas and Kotze...

OBJECTIVE To address whether speakers with cleft palate exhibit velopharyngeal mechanism fatigue and are more susceptible to muscle fatigue than are speakers without cleft palate. METHODS Six adults with repaired palatal clefts and mild-moderate hypernasality served as subjects. Velopharyngeal closure force and levator veli palatini muscle activity were recorded. Subjects were asked to repeat...

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to assess the accuracy of palatal rugae as a tool for human identification and to determine factors that may limit accuracy. This will serve as a potential basis for advising national health policy formulation on human identification as forensic rugoscopy is unexplored in sub-Saharan Africa. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred consenting participants were recr...