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Purpose: We sought to determine whether visual field abnormalities occur in infants with deformational posterior plagiocephaly and to assess whether there is a relationship between the severity and laterality of visual field abnormalities with the severity and laterality of skull deformity. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on 40 consecutive infants with deformational posterior plagiocephaly. Each was tested with standardized binocular arc perimetry in the horizontal plane. Sixteen patients also had 3-dimensional computed tomography of the skull. Hemifield asymmetry of 20 degrees and/or a decrease in hemifield values by 20 degrees from established normal patients was considered abnormal. Visual field data from study patients was plotted against previously published normative data. Graphs comparing visual field defects and laterality to cranial asymmetry also were generated. Results: Thirty-five percent of infants with deformational posterior plagiocephaly had constriction of one or both hemifields by at least 20 degrees from established normal patients. Hemifield asymmetry of 20 degrees or more was found in 17.5% of infants tested. There was a significant difference in the worse hemifield values measured in each patient and the standard visual fields obtained from normative data (P 0.036). There was no correlation between the laterality of the visual fields to the laterality of the defects. A correlation between severity of hemifield constriction and % asymmetry on computed tomography was noted (P 0.209). Conclusions: Deformational posterior plagiocephaly may affect visual field development but neither the laterality nor the severity of skull deformity is predictive of the severity of visual field defects. (J AAPOS 2005; 9:274-278)

Figures of merit are used to estimate the information content and to optimize the sensor placement. They are the key to find an optimal sensor placement, which gives the most available information from a system under investigation with a minimal number of sensors. In this paper we compare figures of merit used in the literature in order to find a suitable one for estimation of the information contained in a sensor network.

Studies of isolated craniosynostosis have shown biomechanical and biochemical influences on the craniofacial phenotype, resulting from both genetic and epigenetic factors. Much less attention has been directed toward the morphology of the brain, despite the interactive nature of the developing skull and developing brain. The aim of this study is to define the morphology of the brain in nonsyndromic unilateral coronal synostosis (UCS) in order to form more complete hypotheses about the cause of craniosynostosis. Landmark coordinate data were collected from 3D magnetic resonance image reconstructions of the brain in a sample of UCS patients and an age-matched morphologically normal cohort. These data were analyzed using Euclidean distance matrix analysis. The results of our study demonstrate that despite the basic similarity of overall shape of the brain and skull in UCS, the effects of craniosynostosis on the brain are not localized to structures immediately adjacent to the fused suture or to the endocranial surface of the skull. Rather, alterations are observed throughout the volume of the brain, with subcortical structures altered in conjunction with cortical changes. These results indicate that the morphological correlates are different for brain and skull and suggest that there is a large degree of independence in the developmental trajectories of the brain and skull.