A Statistical Model of Head Asymmetry in Infants with Deformational Plagiocephaly



AbstractDeformational plagiocephaly is a term describing cranial asymmetry and deformation commonly seen in infants. The purpose of this work was to develop a methodology for assessment and modelling of head asymmetry. The clinical population consisted of 38 infants for whom 3-dimensional surface scans of the head had been obtained both before and after their helmet orthotic treatment. Non-rigid registration of a symmetric template to each of the scans provided detailed point correspondence between scans. A new asymmetry measure was defined and was used in order to quantify and localize the asymmetry of each infant's head, and again employed to estimate the improvement of asym-
metry after the helmet therapy. A statistical model of head asymmetry
was developed (PCA). The main modes of variation were in good agreement with clinical observations, and the model provided an excellent and instructive quantitative description of the asymmetry present in the dataset.
TypeConference paper [With referee]
ConferenceScandinavian Conference on Image Analysis 2007
Year2007
BibTeX data [bibtex]
IMM Group(s)Image Analysis & Computer Graphics