title: Canthal and cephalic indexes of children with homozygous sickle cell disease in Port-Harcourt.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This research was conducted in view of the importance of anthropometric indices of the head and face in forensic medicine, surgery, paediatrics and medical imaging. This study was put forward to determine some of the effects of chronic diseases on head and face of children with homozygous sickle cell disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  A comparative study on canthal and cephalic indexes were carried out on 100 patients, 54 males and 46 females who are homozygous for sickle cell anaemia, who attended the sickle cell clinic at the University of Port-HarcourtTeaching Hospital between the age ranges of 3-18 years. The same was also done for 500 normal growing children 291 males and 209 females between ages 3-18 years who are pupils of the University Kindergarten, Demonstration Primary and Secondary Schools as well as First International Academy Secondary School, Rumuokoro, Port Harcourt. The head length, head breadth, inner and outer canthal distances measured. The results showed a mean cephalic index value of 79.89 +/- 0.87 for the normal growing children while that of the sickle cell children was 79.54 +/- 2.14, which is not statistically significant (P>0.05). The mean canthal index for healthy children was 35.16 +/- 1.01 as against 37.28 +/- 1.65 for the sickle cell children, which is statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research determined the possible effects of chronic diseases such as sickle cell anaemia on the diversity of head and face shapes in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, College of Health Sciences, University of Port-Harcourt, Choba, Port-Harcourt.
authors.forename: H B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Fawehinmi
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Ligha
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D000755:Anemia, Sickle Cell / Q000150:complications*; D002508:Cephalometry; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D006972:Hypertelorism / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria; D012574:Schools; D017678:Sex Distribution