Cervical Vertebra Maturation in Southern Chinese Subjects

Abstract

AIM: To evaluate the validity of cervical vertebra maturation (CVM) as an indicator of skeletal age during the circumpubertal period by correlating CVM to hand-wrist maturation. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Randomly selected contemporary hand-wrist and lateral cephalometric radiographs of 400 southern Chinese patients. The age range for the females was between 10 and 15 years and for the males between 12 and 17 years so that they were within the circumpubertal period. The cervical vertebral skeletal age was assessed using the method of Franchi et al. (2000) and the hand-wrist skeletal age using the method developed by Hägg and Taranger (1982). They were correlated using Spearman rank correlation analysis. RESULT: Cervical vertebral skeletal age was signifi cantly correlated with hand-wrist skeletal age (Spearman r: male = 0.9521, female = 0.9408). The method error was insignifi cant. CONCLUSION: In the circumpubertal period, cervical vertebral skeletal age assessed using the method of Franchi et al. (2000) is closely correlated with hand-wrist skeletal age and can be used for maturity assessment.