title: Cervical vertebral maturation of children with orofacial clefts.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the skeletal maturation of male children with orofacial clefts using the cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case-control study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The School of Stomatology, Peking University.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were 443 boys with cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P) aged 8 to 16 years who were compared with 1772 boys without clefts in an age-matched control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 8- to 10-year-old boys of both groups were in CS1. Most of the 11- to 14-year-old boys without CL/P were in CS3 and CS4, though it was not so obvious in boys with CL/P. Most 15- to 16-year-old boys without CL/P were in CS5 and CS6, while there were a lot of boys with CL/P who were still in cervical stages before CS5. Clefts had a significant effect on growth, and boys without CL/P were 1.737 times more likely to have achieved higher cervical stages. From Mann-Whitney test of every age phase, the difference existed in each year of the age range of 11 to 16 years, except from 12 to 13 years (p  =  .100). In these age phases, the cervical stages of boys with CL/P were lower than those for boys without CL/P. By the age of 14, children with CL/P had a 4.679 times higher risk of delayed CS3, and the 95% confidence interval for the odds ratio was 2.129 to 10.286.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Boys with CL/P are at a higher risk of delayed growth period and retarded pubertal growth peak.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, Peking University School of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Wei Ran
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000254:growth & development*; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male