A novel computer system for the evaluation of nasolabial morphology, symmetry and aesthetics after cleft lip and palate treatment. Part 1: General concept and validation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcms.2017.01.024
• Publication Date: 2017-02-02T00:04:19Z
• Authors: Piotr Pietruski; Marcin Majak; Tomasz Debski; Boguslaw Antoszewski
• Keywords: Male; Adolescent; Esthetics; Cleft Lip; Nose; Lip; Cleft Palate; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Computer Systems; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Humans; Body Weights and Measures; Female

The need for a widely accepted method suitable for a multicentre quantitative evaluation of facial aesthetics after surgical treatment of cleft lip and palate (CLP) has been emphasized for years. The aim of this study was to validate a novel computer system 'Analyse It Doc' (A.I.D.) as a tool for objective anthropometric analysis of the nasolabial region.An indirect anthropometric analysis of facial photographs was conducted with the A.I.D. system and Adobe Photoshop/ImageJ software. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability and the time required for the analysis were estimated separately for each method and compared.Analysis with A.I.D. system was nearly 10-fold faster than that with the reference evaluation method. The A.I.D. system provided strong inter-rater and intra-rater correlations for linear, angular and area measurements of the nasolabial region, as well as a significantly higher accuracy and reproducibility of angular measurements in submental view. No statistically significant inter-method differences were found for other measurements.The hereby presented novel computer system is suitable for simple, time-efficient and reliable multicenter photogrammetric analyses of the nasolabial region in CLP patients and healthy subjects.