Cranial index of children with normal and abnormal brain development in Sokoto, Nigeria: A comparative study

BACKGROUND: Abnormal brain development due to neurodevelopmental disorders in children has always been an important concern, but yet has to be considered as a significant public health problem, especially in the low- and middle-income countries including Nigeria. AIMS: The aim of this study is to determine whether abnormal brain development in the form of neurodevelopmental disorders causes any deviation in the cranial index of affected children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a comparative study on the head length, head width, and cranial index of 112 children (72 males and 40 females) diagnosed with at least one abnormal problem in brain development, in the form of a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD), in comparison with that of 218 normal growing children without any form of NDD (121 males and 97 females), aged 0-18 years old seen at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, over a period of six months, June to December, 2012. The head length and head width of the children was measured using standard anatomical landmarks and cranial index calculated. The data obtained was entered into the Microsoft excel worksheet and analyzed using SPSS version 17. RESULTS: The mean Cephalic Index for normal growing children with normal brain development was 79.82 ± 3.35 and that of the children with abnormal brain development was 77.78 ± 2.95 and the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: It can be deduced from this present study that the cranial index does not change in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.