The parental craniofacial morphological features in Chinese patients with sporadic nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without palate.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the parental craniofacial morphology in Chinese patients with sporadic nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without palate.


METHODS
A total of 98 parental pairs of nonsyndromic unilateral incomplete cleft lip children, 207 parental pairs of nonsyndromic complete cleft lip and palate children, and 206 normal persons from Sichuan University were involved in this study. A conventional cephalometric analysis was used to measure angles, linear distances, and their ratios. Two-sample Student's t tests and a multivariate discriminant analysis were applied to the data.


RESULTS
Data indicate that the unaffected parents of nonsyndromic cleft lip children had on average significantly more acute cranial base angle (Angle N-S-Ba) and larger nasal width (NC-NC') (p < .01). The healthy parents of nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate children consistently displayed a more acute cranial base angle (Angle N-S-Ba), shorter palatal length (A- PNS) and maxillary length (PNS-ANS), a more obtuse gonial angle (Angle Me-Go-Ar), and a larger y-axis length (S-Gn) and nasal width (NC-NC') (p < .01).


CONCLUSIONS
All these results indicate that the healthy parents of patients with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without palate show distinct characteristics in craniofacial morphology. These parental craniofacial features are more obvious in patients with cleft lip with palate than those with cleft lip only. In general, the characteristics seem to be more distinct in the fathers than in the mothers of cleft patients.
Lu
Da-wei
DW
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Center of West China of Medical Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, The People's Republic of China.
Shi
Bing
B
Chen
Huai-qing
HQ
Li
Yu
Y
Meng
Tian
T
He
Xing
X
Zheng
Qian
Q
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002508:Cephalometry; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000473:pathology; D008437:Maxilla / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D009295:Nasal Bone / Q000473:pathology; D010159:Palate / Q000473:pathology; D010290:Parents; D019291:Skull Base / Q000473:pathology; D014716:Vertical Dimension