The current study design incorporates two previously developed, non-invasive approaches to characterize the phenotype of individuals affected with XLHED. Facial 3-dimensional (3D) imaging will be created from white-field morphometric scanning (Hammond, 2004. The 3D facial photographs collected from males (ages 4 years and up) will be used to develop a non-invasive screening tool, which could enable detection of craniofacial signs of XLHED in the newborn period. 3D facial profiling has been reported to be effective in identifying HED (Dellavia et al., 2008), but the technology does not yet meet the ease-of-use criteria for a universal screening tool.~Standard 2-dimensional (2D) frontal and lateral facial photographs will be taken of the same XLHED-affected male subjects as well as of adult females (ages 18-45 yrs) at risk for being XLHED carriers and unaffected adult female controls. The 2D facial photographs will serve a dual purpose; the first being to beta-test a previously developed algorithm to identify males affected with XLHED (Automatic Phenotype Identification of XLHED Patients Final Report, December 25, 2012, unpublished), and the second to adapt the facial recognition algorithm to identify female carriers of XLHED.
The current study design incorporates two previously developed, non-invasive approaches to characterize the phenotype of individuals affected with XLHED.