Validation of Skully Care as a Fast Method for Quantifying Positional Cranial Deformities

Abstract

Objective: Craniofacial measuring is valuable for diagnosis and evaluation of growth and treatment of positional skull deformities. Plagiocephalometry (PCM) quantifies skull deformities and is proven to be reliable and valid. However, PCM needs direct skin contact with thermoplastic material, is laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, Skully Care (SC) was developed to measure positional skull deformities with a smartphone application. Design: SC is retrospectively compared to PCM. Setting: Pediatric physiotherapy centers. Patients: Age ≤1 year, analyzed or treated for positional skull deformities. Interventions: A total of 60 skull shape analyses were performed. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measures employed are Pearson correlation coefficient between cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI; in SC) and oblique diameter difference index (ODDI; in PCM) and between cranial index (CI; in SC) and cranial proportional index (CPI; in PCM). Mann–Whitney U test determined difference of time consumption between PCM and SC. Results: High correlation was found between CVAI and ODDI (r = 0.849; P