THE ROLE OF BONE CENTERS IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF CRANIOSYNOSTOSIS - ANEMBRYOLOGIC APPROACH USING CT MEASUREMENTS IN ISOLATED CRANIOSYNOSTOSIS AND APERT AND CROUZON SYNDROMES

This paper describes the role of the displacement of bone centers, i.e ., the tubers, in the pathogenesis of craniosynostosis. This displacem ent was studied in 54 patients with isolated or syndromic craniosynost osis in the form of CT scans as well as in two dw neonate skulls with Apert syndrome. For comparison, 49 fetal and 8 normal infant dry skull s were studied. Our investigation was restricted to the coronal and me topic sutures. The results showed a significantly more occipital local ization of the frontal bone center and a more frontal localization of the parietal bone center at the side of a synostotic coronal suture in the isolated form as well as in Apert syndrome. In contrast, this was not the case in Crouzon syndrome, thus showing that these two syndrom es have a different pathogenesis. For trigonocephaly, a more anteromed ial localization of the frontal bone centers was found.