A pilot study of facial, cranial and brain MRI morphometry in men with schizophrenia: Part 2

Henriksson, Karin Maria; Wickstrom, Karin; Maltesson, Nils; Ericsson, Anders; Karlsson, Johan; Lindgren, Finn; Astrom, Kalle; McNeil, Thomas Farrell; Agartz, Ingrid

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.03.004

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 147, Issue 2 , Pages 187-195, 30 October 2006

A pilot study of facial, cranial and brain MRI morphometry in men with schizophrenia: Part 2

Karin Maria Henriksson
- Unit of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Barngatan 2, University Hospital, Lund University, S-221 85, Lund, Sweden
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 46 17 77 87; fax: +46 46 17 60 27.
Karin Wickstrom
- Mathematical Imaging Group, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Nils Maltesson
- Mathematical Imaging Group, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Anders Ericsson
- Mathematical Imaging Group, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Johan Karlsson
- Mathematical Imaging Group, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Finn Lindgren
- Mathematical Imaging Group, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Kalle Astrom
- Mathematical Imaging Group, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Thomas Farrell McNeil
- Unit of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Barngatan 2, University Hospital, Lund University, S-221 85, Lund, Sweden
Ingrid Agartz
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Human Brain Informatics (HUBIN), Karolinska Institute and Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
- Institute of Psychiatry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Received 17 June 2005; received in revised form 21 November 2005; accepted 8 March 2006.

Abstract

This pilot study applies a new 3D morphometric MR method to test the hypothesis that men with schizophrenia (vs. controls) have deviant facial shapes and landmark relations in cranio/facial/brain (CFB) regions. This constitutes Part 2 of paired articles in this issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, in which Part 1 presents the new method in detail. MRI coordinates from CFB landmarks of 23 patients and 15 controls were identified and then aligned with the Procrustes model, leaving shape as the only unit-less geometrical information. Men with schizophrenia had significantly longer mid- and lower-facial heights, and greater lower (left) facial depth, with a tendency toward rotation along the facial midline. This supports findings from earlier anthropometric and 3D studies of the “exterior” (face). In contrast, none of the patient–control differences for the new “interior” (cranial–brain) distances reached statistical significance. These results need to be retested on a larger sample of both sexes.

Keywords: Cranio-facial landmarks, Magnetic resonance imaging, Morphometry, Schizophrenia, Shape