Abstract
We evaluated 203 healthy pre-school children between the ages of 4½ and 5½ during 1 week in March. Using anthropologists' calipers, maximum head lengths (glabella to opisthocranium) and the maximum head breadth (euryon to euryon) were measured. A second investigator performed tympanometry. Neither investigator knew the other's results when assessing a subject. Cephalic index (CI) = Maximum head breadth × 100/head length Mean = 76.1 SD ± 3.7 Children were considered brachycephalic whose CI>79.8 (+1 SD), those with a CI between 72.4 and 79.8 were mesoce½ja;oc. and those with a CI< 72.4 (-1 SD) were considered dolichocephalic. A tympanometry failure was defined as a Jerger's Type B tympanogram in one or both ears.
Brachycephalic children were also found to have significantly more effusions than meso- and dolichocephalic children considered together (p < 0.05). Apache Indians are brachycephalic people (CI = 90) and have poor ET function, as is the case with those having Down's syndrome. It is possible that brachycephaly reflects an anatomical variation in the cranial base which, in turn, predisposes to poor ET function & middle ear pathology.
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Worley, G., Sturner, R., Green, J. et al. 1225 AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BRACHYCEPHALY & EUSTACHIAN TUBE (ET) DYSFUNCTION. Pediatr Res 15 (Suppl 4), 647 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-01251
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-01251