Three-dimensional stereophotogrammetry measurement of facial asymmetry in patients with congenital muscular torticollis: a non-invasive method

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate three-dimensional (3D) stereophotogrammetry based methods for measuring craniofacial asymmetry in patients with congenital muscular torticollis (CMT). This study focused on the differences in craniofacial asymmetry in CMT patients compared with a healthy control group using 3D photographs. The difference in facial asymmetry between the CMT group and control group was measured using two methods to analyse facial asymmetry in distinct anatomical regions: (1) mirroring and surface-based registration to analyse the overall facial asymmetry; (2) the ‘coherent point drift’ based method. Thirty-one patients with CMT and 84 controls were included in the study. A statistically significant difference was found between the CMT patients and a healthy control group. The measured facial asymmetry for the CMT group was 1.71±0.66mm and for the controls 0.46±0.14mm (P<0.05). A significant difference was found in surface ratio for the cheek, nose and the forehead region (P<0.05). With its minimal invasive character, 3D stereophotogrammetry is a useful tool in measuring the facial asymmetry associated with CMT and to quantify the treatment-induced facial changes. In the future 3D facial data could be used to create a ranking-scale to categorize the severity of facial asymmetry.