Another Test to Detect Autism Earlier
August 19, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Diagnosis, Neuroscience
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia are studying how to use 3-D imaging to analyze the facial structures and brain abnormalities of autistic children, in the hopes of developing a formula to identify autism in young children. From a press release:
“When you compare the faces and head shapes of children with specific types of autism to other children, it is obvious there are variations. Currently, autism diagnosis is purely behavior based and doctors use tape measurements to check for facial and brain dissimilarities. We are developing a quantitative method that will accurately measure these differences and allow for earlier, more precise detection of specific types of the disorder,” said Ye Duan, assistant computer science professor in the MU College of Engineering. “Once we have created a formula, we can pre-screen children by performing a quick, non-invasive scan of each child’s face and brain to check for abnormalities. Early detection is crucial in treating children and preparing families.”
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“Instead of looking at brain structures slice-by-slice in an MRI (magnetic resonance image), we developed tools to create 3-D representations of the structures in order to visualize and make comparisons,” said Kevin Karsch, a research assistant in Duan’s computer graphics lab, MU senior and Goldwater Scholar. “Using the 3-D representations, we are comparing the brain structures of autistic children to those of non-autistic children; no one has ever done that.”
As autism is currently diagnosed through the observation of a child’s behavior, researchers believe that the development of a test, of a biomarker for autism, might result. Professor Duan’s studies rely on two “subgroups” of autism that have been hypothetically identified by Judith Miles, the William and Nancy Thompson Endowed Chair in Child Health at the Thompson Center:
She has observed and distinguished children with a tendency toward more physical and brain abnormalities and smaller heads as having complex autism. Only about 20 percent of affected children fit this subset. The other 80 percent are classified as having essential autism. Miles also has identified physical similarities in facial structure and increased cranium size among those in the essential group and has speculated that the traits may be related to brain abnormalities.
My own son was born with a large head (so was I) and he continues to have one (as do I).
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield