Cervical vertebral bone age in girls.

The purpose of this study was to establish cervical vertebral bone age as a new index for objectively evaluating skeletal maturation on cephalometric radiographs. Using cephalometric radiographs of 176 girls (ages 7.0-14.9 years), we measured cervical vertebral bodies and determined a regression formula to obtain cervical vertebral bone age. Next, using cephalometric and hand-wrist radiographs of another 66 girls (ages 8.0-13.9 years), we determined the correlation between cervical vertebral bone age and bone age using the Tanner-Whitehouse 2 method. The following results were obtained: (1) a regression formula was determined to obtain cervical vertebral bone age based on ratios of measurements in the third and fourth cervical vertebral bodies; (2) the correlation coefficient for the relationship between cervical vertebral bone age and bone age (0.869) was significantly (P <.05) higher than that for the relationship between cervical vertebral bone age and chronological age (0.705); and (3) the difference (absolute value) between the cervical vertebral bone age and bone age (0.75 years) was significantly (P <.001) smaller than that between cervical vertebral bone age and chronological age (1.17 years). These results suggest that cervical vertebral bone age reflects skeletal maturity because it approximates bone age, which is considered to be the most reliable method for evaluating skeletal maturation. Using cervical vertebral bone age, it might be possible to evaluate maturity in a detailed and objective manner on cephalometric radiographs.

[1]  S. Biren,et al.  Comparisons between cervical vertebrae and hand-wrist maturation for the assessment of skeletal maturity. , 1999, The Journal of clinical pediatric dentistry.

[2]  M. O'Reilly,et al.  Mandibular growth changes and maturation of cervical vertebrae--a longitudinal cephalometric study. , 1988, The Angle orthodontist.

[3]  S. Katoh,et al.  Growth of the Cervical Spine With Special Reference to Its Lordosis and Mobility , 1996, Spine.

[4]  A. Farman,et al.  Skeletal maturation evaluation using cervical vertebrae. , 1995, American journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics : official publication of the American Association of Orthodontists, its constituent societies, and the American Board of Orthodontics.

[5]  V. Remes,et al.  Reference values for radiological evaluation of cervical vertebral body shape and spinal canal , 2000, Pediatric Radiology.

[6]  P. Garcı́a-Fernández,et al.  The cervical vertebrae as maturational indicators. , 1998, Journal of clinical orthodontics : JCO.

[7]  H. Mitani,et al.  An accurate method of predicting mandibular growth potential based on bone maturity. , 2001, American journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics : official publication of the American Association of Orthodontists, its constituent societies, and the American Board of Orthodontics.

[8]  J. Taylor,et al.  Growth of human intervertebral discs and vertebral bodies. , 1975, Journal of anatomy.

[9]  James M. Tanner,et al.  Assessment of skeletal maturity and prediction of adult height : (TW2 method) , 1986 .

[10]  J A McNamara,et al.  Mandibular growth as related to cervical vertebral maturation and body height. , 2000, American journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics : official publication of the American Association of Orthodontists, its constituent societies, and the American Board of Orthodontics.