Siyuan Chen, Svein Kleiven, Ingemar Thiblin, Xiaogai Li
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Characterizing the suture morphological variation is a crucial step to investigate the influence of sutures on infant head biomechanics. This study aimed to establish a comprehensive quantitative framework for accurately capturing the cranial suture and fontanelle morphologies in infants. A total of 69 CT scans of 2–4 month-old infant heads were segmented to identify semilandmarks at the borders of cranial sutures and fontanelles. Morphological characteristics, including length, width, sinuosity index (SI), and surface area, were measured. For this, an automatic method was developed to determine the junction points between sutures and fontanelles, and thin-plate-spline (TPS) was utilized for area calculation. Different dimensionality reduction methods were compared, including nonlinear and linear principal component analysis (PCA), as well as deep-learning-based variational autoencoder (VAE). Finally, the significance of various covariates was analyzed, and regression analysis was performed to establish a statistical model relating morphological parameters with global parameters. This study successfully developed a quantitative morphological framework and demonstrate its application in quantifying morphologies of infant sutures and fontanelles, which were shown to significantly relate to global parameters of cranial size, suture SI, and surface area for infants aged 2–4 months. The developed framework proved to be reliable and applicable in extracting infant suture morphology features from CT scans. The demonstrated application highlighted its potential to provide valuable insights into the morphologies of infant cranial sutures and fontanelles, aiding in the diagnosis of suture-related skull fractures. Infant suture, Infant fontanelle, Morphological variation, Morphology analysis framework, Statistical model.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Anatomy is an international peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the Anatomical Society. The journal publishes original papers, invited review articles and book reviews. Its main focus is to understand anatomy through an analysis of structure, function, development and evolution. Priority will be given to studies of that clearly articulate their relevance to the anatomical community. Focal areas include: experimental studies, contributions based on molecular and cell biology and on the application of modern imaging techniques and papers with novel methods or synthetic perspective on an anatomical system.
Studies that are essentially descriptive anatomy are appropriate only if they communicate clearly a broader functional or evolutionary significance. You must clearly state the broader implications of your work in the abstract.
We particularly welcome submissions in the following areas:
Cell biology and tissue architecture
Comparative functional morphology
Developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary morphology
Functional human anatomy
Integrative vertebrate paleontology
Methodological innovations in anatomical research
Musculoskeletal system
Neuroanatomy and neurodegeneration
Significant advances in anatomical education.