QUANTIFICATION OF ORBICULAR MUSCLE CONTRACTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF SCAR TISSUE IN PATIENTS WITH A RECONSTRUCTED CLEFT LIP.

摘要

Quantification of orbicular muscle contraction as a marker for muscle function and identifier for scar tissue. Elastography of cleft lips is feasible and yields information that is additional to the information from conventional ultrasound images. Different contraction patterns in normal and cleft lips are found. The scar tissue can be differentiated from the muscle since lower deformation values were found in these regions. In this pilot study, the decrease of deformation in the scar tissue region was related with severity of disability.