Analyzing Shape of Faces of Hypertensive and Non-Hypertensive Males Using Geometric Morphometric Methods

Abstract

Geometric morphometric tools were used to analyze the shape of the faces of 84 hypertensive and non- hypertensive males. Image analysis was done on the forty one (41) landmarks of the face. Landmarking was done in three replicates making sure that one session is well spaced from another to minimize bias. The pooled data were fed into the SAGE program, which performed Principal Component Analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Procrustes Fit. Results revealed a higher fluctuating asymmetry in hypertensive male subjects compared to the non-hypertensives. This is further supported by the differences shown by scatterplot analysis.