Abstract
Pediatric cranial sutures are often evaluated for abnormal diastasis upon presentation to the emergency department after trauma or during a neurologic consultation; however, few normative data for CT measurements exist. This study establishes normal means for the sagittal and coronal suture widths during the first year of life by using CT. The sagittal suture and bilateral coronal sutures were evaluated for 483 patients, ages 1 day to 395 days collected retrospectively from electronic medical records. Histograms as well as normality and boxplots were used to view the distribution of the data. An analysis of variance was performed for each suture measured by using month of age as the independent class variable. The average proximal suture widths for the sagittal and coronal sutures at zero months of age were 5.0 ± 0.2 and 2.5 ± 0.1 mm, respectively. From zero to 1 month of age, these sutures narrowed significantly to 2.4 ± 0.1 and 1.3 ± 0.1 mm, respectively. From 1 to 12 months of age, sutures narrowed gradually. The proximal coronal suture widths showed a significant reduction from 1 month to 12 months (1.3 ± 0.1-0.8 ± 0.1 mm). The normative values for suture widths established by CT scan among this large population may be used to assess the infant calvaria for suture diastasis.
Highlights
MethodsThe sagittal suture and bilateral coronal sutures were evaluated for 483 patients, ages 1 day to 395 days collected retrospectively from electronic medical records
AND PURPOSE: Pediatric cranial sutures are often evaluated for abnormal diastasis upon presentation to the emergency department after trauma or during a neurologic consultation; few normative data for CT measurements exist
The proximal coronal suture widths showed a significant reduction from 1 month to 12 months (1.3 Ϯ 0.1– 0.8 Ϯ 0.1 mm)
Summary
The sagittal suture and bilateral coronal sutures were evaluated for 483 patients, ages 1 day to 395 days collected retrospectively from electronic medical records. Patients The study protocol was approved by the Human Use Committee at 2 different institutions. A review of CT imaging reports on the PACS identified patients with no acute intracranial pathology or a normal CT of the head; the study included head CTs conducted among patients 1 year of age or younger during the period January 1, 1994, through December 31, 2008. The study sample included 483 patients between 1 and 395 days of age (mean, 96 days). The CT data available included 966 sagittal suture evaluations and 1932 coronal suture evaluations. Patients were subsequently assigned into the following 6 age groups for analysis: 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 months
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