title: Agreement of Tracing and Direct Viewing Techniques for Cervical Vertebral Maturation Assessment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to evaluate agreement among three methods for cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) assessment, comprising direct viewing, tracing only, and tracing with digitized points.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two examiners received training and tests of reliability with each CVM method before evaluation of agreement among methods. The subjects were 96 female-cleft lateral cephalometric radiographs (films of eight subjects for each age ranged from seven to 18 years). The examiners interpreted CVM stages of the subjects with four-week interval between uses of each method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The range of weighted kappa values for paired comparisons among the three methods were: 0.96-0.98 for direct viewing and tracing only comparison; 0.93-0.94 for direct viewing and tracing with digitized points comparison; and 0.96-0.97 for tracing only and tracing with digitized points comparison. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) value among the three methods was 0.95. These results indicated very good agreement among methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Use of direct viewing is suitable for CVM assessment without spending more time for tracing. However, the three methods might be used interchangeably.
authors.forename: Opas
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wiwatworakul
authors.forename: Montian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manosudprasit
authors.forename: Poonsak
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pisek
authors.forename: Supaporn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatrchaiwiwatana
authors.forename: Tasanee
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wangsrimongkol
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D002508:Cephalometry / Q000379:methods*; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results