An international team of doctors has developed a way to use three-dimensional laser images to diagnose fetal alcohol syndrome.

The doctors used the lasers to take just six images of a child suspected of having FAS--two from the front and two from either side. That gave them digital images that could then be measured objectively by a computer program the researchers established to look for differences between a control group that did not have FAS and the child being measured.

Any parent who has adopted from Russia or who is thinking of adopting from Russia has read up on the physical signs of FAS, like a flat philtrum, the space between the upper lip and the nose. There's a very detailed guide to the hallmarks of FAS on the Web site of the Center for Adoption Medicine at the University of Washington.

But some of the physical signs can be very subtle and there are details that can be picked up by a laser scan that even the most megapixels on a digital camera can't now capture. That seems to be where these researchers are going with this technology, which they call computerized craniofacial anthropometry. By digitzing the quick laser scans--the researchers say each image can be taken in less than a second--the computer can look for more FAS facial features than human examiner and more objectively. The group's computer was also able to recognize indicators of alcohol exposure that are different from one ethnic group to another. The work was published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (yes, I'm a bit late on getting details to you). You can order a copy of the work here.

The doctors involved in this research work under the umbrella of a group called the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Two Russian organizations are also among the members of the group, though the press release on the study does not list them among the participants in it: The Moscow Institute of Psychiatry and the Moscow Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

CIFASD has got funding for five more years of research, which will be done in the United States, South Africa and Ukraine. Elizabeth S. Moore, research scientist at St. Vincent Hospital and corresponding author for the study outlined her hopes for the work in the press release: "At the very least," she said, "we hope that improved detection could lead to earlier intervention for at-risk children and, through this, better chances for improving the lives of such children."

Image credit: designervoodoo, Morguefile.com