Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) includes the facial dysmorphic feature of short palpebral fissures (PFs) and short PFs are a key physical marker for identifying children with FAS and some other rarer conditions. There is concern that normative data on PFs now available may not reflect all racial/ethnic groups and might be inaccurate in general.
To accomplish a large population based study that would accurately determine normative PF values across the full diversity of the Canadian school age population.
Analysis demonstrated that PFs do grow with age and there is a slight but meaningful difference between boys and girls in each age group. It is possible to define Canadian standards without reference to racial or ethnic origin.
Mean results with norms and standard deviations are presented in figures for clinical use and are clinically smaller than those found in the most commonly used reference book.
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