Morphometric characteristics of skull and face parameters in fetuses and newborns

Abstract

Modern science has a significant number of diagnostic methods: craniological, anatomical, ultrasound, radiological. The development of new research methods, such as ultrasound and X-ray methods (magnetic resonance imaging), forms the concept of ultrasound and X-ray norms at different stages of human development. Now it is important to study the anatomical variability of people, morphometric characteristics, relationships of organs, anatomical structures, their parts at all stages of human development. The purpose of the work is to establish normative morphometric parameters of the skull and face in fetuses and newborns, followed by construction of mathematical models. The study was performed on 57 preparations of human fetuses 4-10 months and 7 newborns using adequate anatomical methods: macropreparation, topographic anatomical sections, computed tomography, craniometry. The main parameters of the facial and cerebral skull were measured with the help of a centimeter tape, a thick, sliding compass and a caliper. Statistical analysis of the obtained data was performed using a licensed program RStudio. It is established that according to the graphs of the average values of the parameters of the skull and face, there are two periods of accelerated and two periods of slow development. For transverse skull length, face width and skull height, two periods of accelerated development from the 6th to the 8th month of fetal development and from the 9th month of fetal development to the neonatal period and two periods of delayed development from the 5th to the 6th months and from the 8th to the 9th month of fetal development were revealed. For the total height of the face – periods of accelerated development – from the 4th to the 6th month of fetal development and from the 7th to the 9th month of fetal development, periods of delayed development – from the 6th to the 7th month of fetal development and from the 9th month of fetal development to the neonatal period. On the basis of arithmetic mean data of transverse skull length, face width, skull height, total face height, models for predicting normative morphometric parameters in fetuses and newborns are constructed. The constructed models will serve as a norm for the subsequent determination of certain morphometric deviations to establish variants of the structure and malformations of the skull and face. Thus, our systematized data on the features of spatio-temporal transformations of morphometric parameters of transverse skull length, face width, skull height, total face height with subsequent construction of mathematical models will contribute to the individualization of the norm, improvement of early diagnosis methods and development of new methods for surgical correction of congenital defects of the skull and face.