title: Normal sagittal and coronal suture widths by using CT imaging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pediatric cranial sutures are often evaluated for abnormal diastasis upon presentation to the emergency department after trauma or during a neurologic consultation; however, few normative data for CT measurements exist. This study establishes normal means for the sagittal and coronal suture widths during the first year of life by using CT.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sagittal suture and bilateral coronal sutures were evaluated for 483 patients, ages 1 day to 395 days collected retrospectively from electronic medical records. Histograms as well as normality and boxplots were used to view the distribution of the data. An analysis of variance was performed for each suture measured by using month of age as the independent class variable.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average proximal suture widths for the sagittal and coronal sutures at zero months of age were 5.0 ± 0.2 and 2.5 ± 0.1 mm, respectively. From zero to 1 month of age, these sutures narrowed significantly to 2.4 ± 0.1 and 1.3 ± 0.1 mm, respectively. From 1 to 12 months of age, sutures narrowed gradually. The proximal coronal suture widths showed a significant reduction from 1 month to 12 months (1.3 ± 0.1-0.8 ± 0.1 mm).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The normative values for suture widths established by CT scan among this large population may be used to assess the infant calvaria for suture diastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii 96589, USA. lex.a.mitchell@us.army.mil
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Kitley
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Armitage
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Krasnokutsky
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Rooks
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*