Use of black-bone MRI in the diagnosis of the patients with posterior plagiocephaly.

Purpose: Ionising radiation exposure is especially harmful to brain development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether black-bone (BB) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a non-ionising imaging method, offers an alternative to ionising imaging methods such as computed tomography (CT) in the examination of cranial deformities.

Methods: From 2012 to 2014, a total of 408 children were referred to the Craniofacial Centre at the Helsinki University Hospital for further examination due to flatness of the posterior skull.