Determination of the facial soft tissue thickness using MRI in patients referred to the radiology department of Madani Hospital

Abstract

Different methods have been used to identify human skeletal remains and important data can be obtained using these techniques too. However, facial reconstruction is the last method to indentify unknown human faces which require knowledge about facial soft tissue thickness in the different positions of the face. The present study determined the facial soft tissue thickness in the different landmark points on the MRI images of patients referred to Radiology Department of Shahid Madani Hospital. Materials and Methods In this descriptive cross-sectional trial, MRI images of 179 patients (61 males, 118 females) in the age range of 18-76 years old who did not show any pathologic lesions, were selected. The measurements of the facial soft tissue were done on 24 landmark points on the midline and mid-face areas by two radiologist observers using specific software on the images. The differences in the soft tissue thickness in these landmark points were statistically analyzed by Mann-whitney U (in term of gender) and Kruskal-wallis tests (in terms of BMI and age groups). The data were compared with the results of other studies. Results The results obtained in the present study were higher than Turkish and American studies in the most landmark points. Facial soft tissue thickness in the most landmarks was more in males than females. In some landmarks, significant differences were found between emaciated, normal and overweight patients while in the most cases, soft tissue thickness increased with the increased BMI. In some cases, significant differences were noted between soft tissue thickness values among the different age groups; in which, the thickness increased or thinned with the increased age. Conclusion In total, the data achieved in the present study can be used for the facial reconstruction purposes in the Iranian population; however, slight differences existed between the studied population and other sub-group races must be considered for the accurate reconstructions