The Esthetic Perception of Morphological Severity in Scaphocephalic Patients is Correlated With Specific Head Geometrical Features

Alessandro Borghi*, P. Heutinck, N. Rodriguez-Florez, M. Koudstaal, F. Ruggiero, S. Ajami, S. Schievano, N. U.O. Jeelani, D. Dunaway

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
24 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between perception of craniofacial deformity, geometric head features, and 3D head shape analyzed by statistical shape modeling (SSM). Patients: A total of 18 unoperated patients with scaphocephaly (age = 5.2 ± 1.1m)—6 were followed-up after spring-assisted cranioplasty (SAC) (age = 9.6 ± 1.5m)—and 6 controls (age = 6.7 ± 2.5m). Main Outcome Measures: 3D head shapes were retrieved from 3D scans or computed tomography (CTs). Various geometrical features were measured: anterior and posterior prominence, take-off angle, average anterior and posterior lateral and horizontal curvatures, cranial index (CI) (cranial width over length), and turricephaly index (TI) (cranial height over length). SSM and principal component analysis (PCA) described shape variability. All models were 3D printed; the perception of deformity was blindly scored by 9 surgeons and 1 radiologist in terms of frontal bossing (FB), occipital bulleting (OB), biparietal narrowing (BN), low posterior vertex (LPV), and overall head shape (OHS). Results: A moderate correlation was found between FB and anterior prominence (r = 0.56, P <.01) and take-off angle (r = − 0.57, P <.01). OB correlated with average posterior lateral curvature (r = 0.43, P < 0.01) similarly to BPN (r = 0.55, P <.01) and LPV (r = 0.43, P <.01). OHS showed strong correlation with CI (r = − 0.68, P <.01) and TI (r = 0.63, P<.01). SSM Mode 1 correlated with OHS (r = 0.66, p <.01) while Mode 3 correlated with FB (r = − 0.58, P <.01). Conclusions: Esthetic cranial appearance in craniofacial patients is correlated to specific geometric parameters and could be estimated using automated methods such as SSM.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1591-1599
Number of pages9
JournalCleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal
Volume60
Issue number12
Early online date3 Jul 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The work has been funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children Charity (grant number 12SG15) as well as the NIHR British Research Council Advanced Therapies for Structural Malformations and Tissue Damage pump-prime funding call (grant number 17DS18), the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Clinical Research Starter Grant (grant number 17DD46), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N02124X/1), and the European Research Council (ERC-2017-StG-757923). This report incorporates independent research from the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre Funding Scheme. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research, or the Department of Health.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Esthetic Perception of Morphological Severity in Scaphocephalic Patients is Correlated With Specific Head Geometrical Features'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this