Head circumference and body growth in autism spectrum disorders

Fukumoto, Aya; Hashimoto, Toshiaki; Mori, Koichi; Tsuda, Yoshimi; Arisawa, Kokichi; Kubo, Shoji

doi:10.1016/j.braindev.2010.09.004

Cited by 30 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Consistent with previous reports 8, 18 , girls with ASD did not differ in overall body size from TD controls in the first year of life, and our work extends these findings into the second year. Similarly, compared to community controls, the rates of extreme EGO were not significantly increased in girls with ASD.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Although consistent with other work 7,8,18,53 on the group level, newborns later diagnosed with ASD did not deviate from typical controls with regard to body or head size, at the individual level, significantly more newborns exhibited both microsomy and microcephaly. These results were present after the effects of gestational age were accounted for and highlight the presence of an increased variability in prenatal somatic growth amongst newborns later diagnosed with ASD 52 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Those studies suggest that somatic overgrowth in the first year of life is more common in boys than in girls with ASD, although specific patterns differ across studies. In a study of Japanese infants with ASD, boys showed overgrowth in HC, height, and weight compared to community controls throughout the first year, but girls were larger only shortly after birth 8 . A population-based Norwegian study suggested that boys but not girls were larger and heavier than the community controls in the first year of life 18 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Early Generalized Overgrowth in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Prevalence Rates, Gender Effects, and Clinical Outcomes

Campbell¹,

Chang²,

Chawarska³

2014

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective Although early head and body overgrowth have been well-documented in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), their prevalence and significance remain unclear. It is also unclear whether overgrowth affects males and females differentially, and whether it is associated with clinical outcomes later in life. Method To evaluate prevalence of somatic overgrowth, gender effects, and associations with clinical outcomes, head circumference, height, and weight measurements were collected retrospectively between birth and 2 years of age in toddlers with ASD (n=200) and typically developing (TD; n=147) community controls. Symptom severity, verbal, and nonverbal functioning were assessed at 4 years. Results Abnormalities in somatic growth in infants with ASD were consistent with early generalized overgrowth (EGO). Boys but not girls with ASD were larger and exhibited an increased rate of extreme EGO compared to community controls (18.0% versus 3.4%). Presence of a larger body at birth and postnatal overgrowth were associated independently with poorer social, verbal, and nonverbal skills at 4 years. Conclusion Although early growth abnormalities in ASD are less common than previously thought, their presence is predictive of lower social, verbal, and nonverbal skills at 4 years, suggesting that they may constitute a biomarker for identifying toddlers with ASD at risk for less-optimal outcomes. The results highlight that the search for mechanisms underlying atypical brain development in ASD should consider factors responsible for both neural and non-neural tissue development during prenatal and early postnatal periods, and can be informed by the finding that early overgrowth may be more readily observed in males than females with ASD.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

mentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Early Generalized Overgrowth in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Prevalence Rates, Gender Effects, and Clinical Outcomes

Campbell¹,

Chang²,

Chawarska³

2014

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…36 There is also uncertainty as to whether increased head growth in ASD, when detected, is a component of generalized somatic overgrowth, 34, 37, 38 or is independent of group differences in height and/or weight. 7, 28, 39; 57 As well, two recent studies also reported similar head growth in children with ASD compared to children other developmental or mental health diagnoses 23, 25 ; notably, in one of these studies, both groups would have been regarded as having accelerated head growth in the first 18 months if assessed relative to CDC norms. 25 Thus, evidence for increased HC as an ASD-specific risk marker remains inconsistent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Early Head Growth in Infants at Risk of Autism: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study

Zwaigenbaum

Young

Stone

et al. 2014

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: While early brain overgrowth is frequently reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the relationship between ASD and head circumference (HC) is less clear, with inconsistent findings from longitudinal studies that include community controls. Our aim was to examine whether head growth in the first 3 years differed between children with ASD from a high-risk (HR) sample of infant siblings of children with ASD (by definition, multiplex), HR siblings not diagnosed with ASD, and low-risk (LR) controls. Method: Participants included 442 HR and 253 LR infants from 12 sites of the international Baby Siblings Research Consortium. Longitudinal HC data were obtained prospectively, supplemented by growth records. Random effects non-linear growth models were used to compare HC in HR infants and LR infants. Additional comparisons were conducted with the HR group stratified by diagnostic status at age 3: ASD (n=77), developmental delay (DD; n=32), and typical development (TD; n=333). Nonlinear growth models were also developed for height to assess general overgrowth associated with ASD. Results: There was no overall difference in head circumference growth over the first 3 years between HR and LR infants, although secondary analyses suggested possible increased total growth in HR infants, reflected by the model asymptote. Analyses stratifying the HR group by 3-year outcomes did not detect differences in head growth or height between HR infants who developed ASD and those who did not, nor between infants with ASD and LR controls. Conclusion: Head growth was uninformative as an ASD risk marker within this HR cohort.

show abstract

“…Control for body-size has had mixed effects on study outcome: five studies found that significant HC abnormalities in ASD remained even when body size was included as a covariate(22,55,56,62,63), but five studies failed to find significant HC alterations in ASD after co-varying for body size(21,35,58,59,64). …”

Section: Findings: Systematic Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compared to What? Early Brain Overgrowth in Autism and the Perils of Population Norms

Raznahan

Wallace

Antezana

et al. 2013

Biological Psychiatry

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Early brain overgrowth (EBO) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is amongst the best-replicated biological associations in psychiatry. Most positive reports have compared head circumference (HC) in ASD (an excellent proxy for early brain size) with well-known reference norms. We sought to reappraise evidence for the EBO hypothesis given (i) the recent proliferation of longitudinal HC studies in ASD, and (ii) emerging reports that several of the reference norms used to define EBO in ASD may be biased towards detecting HC overgrowth in contemporary samples of healthy children. Methods (1)Systematic review of all published HC studies in children with ASD. (2)Comparison of 330 longitudinally gathered HC measures between birth and 18 months from male children with autism(n=35) and typically developing controls(n=22). Results In systematic review, comparisons with locally recruited controls were significantly less likely to identify EBO in ASD than norm-based studies(p<0.006). Through systematic review and analysis of new data we replicate seminal reports of EBO in ASD relative to classical HC norms, but show that this overgrowth relative to norms is mimicked by patterns of HC growth age in a large contemporary community-based sample of US children(n~75,000). Controlling for known HC norm biases leaves inconsistent support for a subtle, later-emerging and sub-group specific pattern of EBO in clinically-ascertained ASD vs. community controls. Conclusions The best-replicated aspects of EBO reflect generalizable HC norm biases rather than disease-specific biomarkers. The potential HC norm biases we detail are not specific to ASD research, but apply throughout clinical and academic medicine.

show abstract

Head circumference and body growth in autism spectrum disorders

Cited by 30 publications

References 26 publications

Early Generalized Overgrowth in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Prevalence Rates, Gender Effects, and Clinical Outcomes

Early Generalized Overgrowth in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Prevalence Rates, Gender Effects, and Clinical Outcomes

Early Head Growth in Infants at Risk of Autism: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study

Compared to What? Early Brain Overgrowth in Autism and the Perils of Population Norms

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About