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. 2010 Mar;2(1):39-46.
doi: 10.1007/s11689-009-9036-5.

Infant head growth in male siblings of children with and without autism spectrum disorders

John N Constantino  1 , Palak Majmudar, Alex Bottini, Molly Arvin, Yamini Virkud, Paul Simons, Ed Spitznagel
Affiliations

Infant head growth in male siblings of children with and without autism spectrum disorders

John N Constantino et al. J Neurodev Disord. 2010 Mar.

Abstract

PURPOSE: Previous research has indicated that children with autism exhibit accelerated head growth (HG) in infancy, although the timing of acceleration varies between studies. We examined infant HG trajectory as a candidate autism endophenotype by studying sibling pairs. METHODS: We retrospectively obtained serial head orbitofrontal circumference measurements of: a) 48 sibling pairs in which one (n=28) or both (n=20) sibs were affected by an autism spectrum disorder (ASD); and b) 85 control male sibling pairs. RESULTS: Rate of HG of ASD subjects was slightly accelerated compared to controls, but the magnitude of difference was below the limit of reliability of standard measurement methods. Sibling intra class correlation for rate of HG was highly statistically significant; the magnitude was significantly stronger among autism-affected families (ICC=.63) than among controls (ICC=.26), p<.01. CONCLUSION: Infant HG trajectory appears familial-possibly endophenotypic-but was not a reliable marker of autism risk among siblings of ASD probands in this sample.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Average head circumference, computed in Proc NLIN as a function of age in subjects with ASD (lighter curve) versus controls (darker curve)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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