A morphometric study of normal and abnormal fetal to childhood tongue size

The weight, length, width and thickness of 83 normal tongues from patients aged 25 weeks of gestation to 10.5 years were compared statistically with several measures of body and head size and changes described by linear regression; the relationships between measures were examined by partial and least-squares correlation. Sex differences in tongue size were not evident. The tongue doubles in length, width and thickness between birth and adolescence and grows considerably beyond this period. That the major dimensions of the tongue correlated more with head size than body size implies that local factors affect lingual growth more than generalized somatic ones. The weights of 45 tongues thought to be abnormal in size were compared with those of controls. The volume of normal and abnormal tongues was identical to weight, indicating that density remains constant in a variety of conditions. The tongue was abnormally small in hypoglossia hypodactylia and in cleft lip and palate. Tongue weights were within 1 SD of control means in DiGeorge syndrome or oligohydramnios. The tongue was significantly enlarged when protuberant or in anencephaly, CHARGE association and Crouzon syndrome. Anasarca produced a variable degree of enlargement. Concomitant aberrations in the size of the tongue and mandible occurred frequently, but small tongues were not always associated with small mandibles and large tongues were not always observed with large mandibles. Thus, the association of lingual and craniofacial anomalies seems to develop from a number of diverse factors, in addition to biomechanical ones.