Kano’s First Female Medical Anatomist Makes History with New Muscle Discovery

A team of researchers led by Dr. Maryam Nasir Aliyu at Northwest University Kano (formerly Yusuf Maitama Sule University Kano) has unveiled the discovery of a previously unidentified muscle head within the quadriceps group.

This discovery, initially observed during a lower limb dissection class several years ago, has been confirmed through a thorough cadaveric study funded by a TETFund Institution-Based Research (IBR) Grant.

The newly discovered muscle, named the Tensor Vastus Intermedius (TVI), was first described by Grob et al. This research solidifies the TVI’s consistent presence across all dissected limbs from three universities, establishing it as a distinct muscle.

The study also highlighted that the TVI has its own blood supply, sourced from branches of the femoral artery, and is independently innervated by the femoral nerve.

Dr. Maryam Nasir Aliyu, the Principal Investigator, remarked, “This significant discovery challenges the traditional understanding of the quadriceps muscle group, suggesting that it may be more accurately described as a ‘pentaceps’ muscle. The implications of this finding could have far-reaching consequences for fields such as sports medicine, physical therapy, and orthopedic surgery.”