[Correlation of adolescents' skeletal maturation determined by cervical vertebrae and hand-wrist in Shanghai region].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the skeletal maturation determined by cervical vertebrae and hand-wrist, and to explore the possibility of using lateral cephalograms to evaluate physical development stages of orthodontic patients.


METHODS
The samples were derived from 170 pairs of lateral cephalograms and hand-wrist radiographs taken before orthodontic treatment (52 males, 118 females; 5-18 years of age). Cervical vertebral development was evaluated by the method of Hassel and Farman. Hand-wrist radiographs were determined according to the method of Grave and Brown's system. The Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients were estimated for the samples, and for males and females respectively to detect the relationship between the two ways of skeletal maturation measurements using SPSS 11.0 software package.


RESULTS
The spearman correlation coefficient was 0.918(P<0.01) between cervical vertebrae maturation and hand-wrist maturation for sexes combined, and 0.858 (P<0.01) for males and 0.882(P<0.01) for females respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The cervical vertebrae analysis on lateral cephalogram was a valid way on orthodontic practice to evaluate physical development stage of growing patients.
Sun
Yan
Y
Department of Orthodontics, College of Stomatology, Ninth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 20001, China.
You
Qing-ling
QL
Liu
Hong-hu
HH
D000293:Adolescent; D001846:Bone Development; D002508:Cephalometry; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014953:Wrist / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000254:growth & development