자기공명영상을 이용한 점막하 구개열의 진단 - 증례보고

Diagnosis of Submucous Cleft Palate Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Submucous cleft palate is diagnosed relatively later than overt cleft palate, because the signs of submucous cleft palate (i.e. bifid uvula, palatal muscle diastasis, bony notch, etc.) is not easily observed. Compared with oral inspection, speech assessments provide more conclusive information for diagnosis. However diagnosis is often delayed until the patient begins verbal communications and produces connected speech so that adequate speech sample can be obtained. And this delaying of diagnosis could result in development of abnormal speech behavior such as compensatory articulation. However, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can result in early diagnosis and decision for surgical approach than speech assessment in case of submucous cleft palate. This can be achieved even when the child can not produce connected speech, by indicating discontinuous levator veli palatini and attachment of the muscle bundles onto the hard palate. In this case report, we present a 26 months old child who was diagnosed as submucous cleft palate using MRI and repaired by intravelar veloplasty.