摘要：Past investigations of Down’s syndrome (DS) have indicated that there are marked abnormalities in the craniofacial morphology. The aim of this study was to establish the craniofacial anthropometric variables which discriminate DS group from healthy population and also to observe the changes occuring with growth. Using noninvasive method of craniofacial anthropometry, the craniofacial pattern profile (CFPP) analysis (from twenty-five anthropometric measurements per person) was performed in 104 DS individuals and 365 healthy controls, aged seven to fifty-seven and divided into four age ranges. Z-scores were calculated for each variable and the variations in the craniofacial region have been identified by multivariate discriminative analysis. The results showed that three variables (head length (g-op), head circumference (OFC) and outer canthal distance (ex-ex)) were responsible for 85.68% variability (p showed that the majority of variables were in subnormal (under –2 SD) and normal range (from –2SD to +2SD), but none of them was in the supernormal range (over the +2SD). Some craniofacial characteristics are age-related. On the basis of craniofacial anthropometric traits it was posssible to separate even 91.35% of DS patients from the healthy population. It could be concluded that these findings demonstrate the usefulness of application of CFPP in defining abnormal craniofacial dimensions in DS individuals.
