Head circumference - a useful single parameter for skull volume development in cranial growth analysis?

Abstract

BackgroundThe measurement of maximal head circumference is a standard procedure in the examination of childrens’ cranial growth and brain development. The objective of the study was to evaluate the validity of maximal head circumference to cranial volume in the first year of life using a new method which includes ear-to-ear over the head distance and maximal cranial length measurement.Methods3D surface scans for cranial volume assessment were conducted in this method comparison study of 44 healthy Caucasian children (29 male, 15 female) at the ages of 4 and 12 months.ResultsCranial volume increased from measurements made at 4 months to 12 months of age by an average of 1174 ± 106 to 1579 ± 79 ml. Maximal cranial circumference increased from 43.4 ± 9 cm to 46.9 ± 7 cm and the ear-to ear measurement increased from 26.3 ± 21 cm to 31.6 ± 18 cm at the same time points. There was a monotone association between maximal head circumference (HC) and increase in volume, yet a backwards inference from maximal circumference to the volume had a predictive value of only 78% (adjusted R2). Including the additional measurement of distance from ear to ear strengthened the ability of the model to predict the true value attained to 90%. The addition of the parameter skull length appeared to be negligible.ConclusionThe results demonstrate that for a distinct improvement in the evaluation of a physiological cranial volume development, the additional measurement of the ear-to ear distance using a measuring tape is expedient, and, especially for cases with pathological skull changes, such as craniosynostosis, ought to be conducted.

Genome-wide meta-analysis of brain volume identifies genomic loci and genes shared with intelligence

“…The LDSC intercept of 1.02 is close to 1, suggesting that the observed inflation (λ GC = 1.118) in genetic signal is mostly due to polygenicity rather than population stratification 22 (see Supplementary Note 1). The UKB GWAS results were then meta-analyzed with GWAS results from two previously published studies: one on ICV from the ENIGMA consortium 13 (N = 11,373), the other on HC, a proven proxy of BV [23][24][25] (also see Supplementary Note 2), from a recent GWAS meta-analysis 11 of adults and children (N = 18,881). This led to a total sample size of 47,316 unrelated Europeans ( Supplementary Fig.…”

Low-frequency variation in TP53 has large effects on head circumference and intracranial volume

“…a genetic correlation coefficient near one), we considered HC and ICV to be related proxy measures of an underlying phenotype, which we termed final cranial dimension. This also suggests that estimated skeletal volume, a combination of HC, cranial height and cranial length 52 , might represent a more accurate, easily accessible and inexpensive measure to enhance power for future genetic analysis using a multi-trait approach 53 in combination with ICV, exploiting similar volumetric properties.…”

Changing perspectives: Towards detailed phenotyping in genetics

“…The LDSC intercept of 1.02, however, suggested that the observed inflation in 5 genetic signal is mostly due to polygenicity and unlikely to be driven by population stratification 196 (see Supplementary Results). The UKB GWAS results were then meta-analyzed with GWAS results from two previously published studies 295,296 : one on intracranial volume (ICV) from the ENIGMA consortium 297 (N=11,373), the other on head circumference (HC), a proven proxy of BV [298][299][300] (also see Supplementary Methods), from a recent GWAS meta-analysis 301 of adults and children (N=18,881). This led to a total sample size of 47,316 unrelated Europeans (Supplementary Fig.…”