title: Israeli children with autism spectrum disorder are not macrocephalic.
abstract: The prevalence of macrocephaly in autism spectrum disorder is reported to be much higher than in the general population, 12% to 37%. Progressive macrocephaly is even considered a warning sign for the development of autism. We evaluated the prevalence of an abnormal head circumference in children with autism in Israel and compared it with the head circumferences of children with developmental language disorder and children with normal development. We did not find a higher prevalence of macrocephaly among Israeli children with autism spectrum disorder (4.4%). Although children with autism spectrum disorder had a significantly higher rate of a head circumference above the 75th percentile compared with children with developmental language disorder, it was not significantly different compared with normal controls. We conclude that there is no increased prevalence of macrocephaly in Israeli children with autism; this can be attributed to a different genetic background.
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, Jerusalem and Shfela District, Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel. davidom@netvision.net.il
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davidovitch
authors.forename: Dafna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Golan
authors.forename: Orna
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vardi
authors.forename: Dorit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lev
authors.forename: Tally
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lerman-Sagie
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002508:Cephalometry; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006257:Head / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D058627:Megalencephaly / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies