Abstrakt

Mesocephalic Head Shape Observed in Children with Neuro-Developmental Disorders (NDDS): A Comparative Study.

Musa MA, Abdulhameed A, Bello SS, Usman JD, Bello A, Ammani T, and Ahmed H

Head shape and head size classifications are very useful tool used by pediatricians and other caregivers of infants and young children as it helps them to recognize common cranial abnormalities at an early stage. This study investigated the pattern of head shapes in children with neuro-developmental problems and compared findings with that of other normal growing children. A total of 300 children (218 normal growing children and 112 children with neuro-developmental problems) aged between 0 and 18 years were recruited for this study. The head length and head width of the children were measured and cephalic Index (CI) calculated. The mean cephalic index (CI) in both groups was 79.82±3.35 and 77.78±2.95 respectively and this difference was not statistically significant (p = > 0.05). However, a statistically significant difference (p=0.0008) was observed in the CI of males between the two groups which was not the same case in females (p=>0.05). Mesocephalic head shape type had the highest overall distribution of 71.43% while Hyperbrachycephaly had the least distribution of 1.79%. The dominant head shape as per the present study could be classified as mesocephalic in the two groups of normal growing children and children with neuro-developmental disorders, thus it can be deduced that head shape tends not to be affected by some neuro-developmental problems.