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Autism spectrum disorders: head circumference and body length at birth are both relative
Author(s) -
Grandgeorge Marine,
Lemonnier Eric,
Jallot Nelle
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.12264
Subject(s) - macrocephaly , microcephaly , head circumference , medicine , pediatrics , circumference , autism , autism spectrum disorder , birth weight , percentile , brain size , low birth weight , gestational age , pregnancy , psychiatry , magnetic resonance imaging , biology , genetics , statistics , geometry , mathematics , radiology
Aim Although the body length and weight of an infant are related to head circumference, little research on ASDs has examined these factors. Our study compared the head circumferences of neonates who were later diagnosed with ASD with a control group. Additional comparisons on morphological disproportions at birth included the head circumference‐to‐height and head circumference‐to‐weight ratios. Methods We recruited 422 children with ASD and 153 typically developing children. Head circumference, body length and weight at birth were collected and standardized as percentile scores according to gestational age and gender. Results Our results revealed that genuine macrocephaly was significantly higher in children with other pervasive developmental disorders compared with the control group. This difference was not observed with regard to genuine microcephaly. Relative macrocephaly and relative microcephaly were significantly more frequent in children with autism disorder compared with the control group with regard to body length. Conclusions The differences in relative macrocephaly and microcephaly, as well as in other parameters, between diagnostic subgroups suggest that the presence of several neurological mechanisms plays a role in the later expression of different phenotypes. An increased head circumference‐to‐body length ratio in newborns may be a factor to follow that could be related to ASD.