Authors
Pauline Chaste, Lambertus Klei, Stephan J Sanders, Michael T Murtha, Vanessa Hus, Jennifer K Lowe, A Jeremy Willsey, Daniel Moreno-De-Luca, W Yu Timothy, Eric Fombonne, Daniel Geschwind, Dorothy E Grice, David H Ledbetter, Catherine Lord, Shrikant M Mane, Christa Lese Martin, Donna M Martin, Eric M Morrow, Christopher A Walsh, James S Sutcliffe, Matthew W State, Bernie Devlin, Edwin H Cook Jr, Soo-Jeong Kim
Publication date
2013/10/15
Journal
Biological Psychiatry
Volume
74
Issue
8
Pages
576-584
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
Background
Brain development follows a different trajectory in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than in typically developing children. A proxy for neurodevelopment could be head circumference (HC), but studies assessing HC and its clinical correlates in ASD have been inconsistent. This study investigates HC and clinical correlates in the Simons Simplex Collection cohort.
Methods
We used a mixed linear model to estimate effects of covariates and the deviation from the expected HC given parental HC (genetic deviation). After excluding individuals with incomplete data, 7225 individuals in 1891 families remained for analysis. We examined the relationship between HC/genetic deviation of HC and clinical parameters.
Results
Gender, age, height, weight, genetic ancestry, and ASD status were significant predictors of HC (estimate of the ASD effect = .2 cm). HC was approximately normally distributed in …
Scholar articles
P Chaste, L Klei, SJ Sanders, MT Murtha, V Hus… - Biological Psychiatry, 2013