Development of a statistical model of cranial vault morphology and thickness in Chinese children aged 10–18 years

OBJECTIVE: Head injury is a major cause of permanent disability and death in children. Accurate characterization of growth-related changes in cranial vault size, shape, and thickness is essential for developing pediatric head finite element (FE) models and assessing age-specific head injury risks. However, studies of cranial vault morphological changes in children aged 10-18 years remain limited, and quantitative morphological characteristics-including cranial vault dimensions, three-dimensional shape, and nonuniform thickness distribution-have not been characterized for this age range. This study aimed to develop a statistical model of cranial vault morphology and thickness based on cranial CT images from 40 Chinese children aged 10-18 years. METHODS: In this study, discrete point clouds representing cranial vault morphology were extracted from cranial CT images. A statistical skull geometric model incorporating age and head circumference as predictors was then developed using principal component analysis and regression (PCA&R) method. RESULTS: Age-related changes in cranial vault morphology and nonuniform thickness distribution from 10 to 18 years of age were quantified using the statistical model. Representative cranial vault models, including morphology and thickness distribution, were generated at one-year age intervals, together with those models corresponding to different percentiles at specific ages. Both cranial size and thickness increased with age and percentile. However, the increase in cranial thickness was substantially greater than the corresponding increase in cranial size for children aged 10-18 years old. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed framework provides a quantitative model of cranial vault morphology and thickness for children aged 10-18 years.