Skeletal maturation determined by cervical vertebrae development.

The aim of this study was to determine the validity of cervical vertebrae radiographic assessment to predict skeletal maturation. Left hand-wrist and lateral cephalometric radiographs of 958 Spanish children from 5 to 18 years of age were measured. On the left hand-wrist radiographs the classification of Grave and Brown was used to assess skeletal maturation. Cervical vertebrae maturation was evaluated with lateral cephalometric radiographs using the stages described by Lamparski and by Hassel and Farman. A new method to evaluate the cervical maturation by studying the changes in the concavity of the lower border, height, and shape of the vertebral body was created. Correlation coefficients were calculated to establish the relationship between skeletal maturation values obtained by the three classifications of vertebral and skeletal maturation measured at the wrist. All correlation values obtained were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The results suggest that this new method to determine skeletal maturation is very reliable. A simple method based on morphological characteristics of the cervical vertebral bodies to evaluate the maturation stage has been designed. In the population investigated, this method is as accurate as the Hassel and Farman classification and superior to the Lamparski classification. The morphological vertebral parameter best able to estimate the maturation is the concavity of the lower border of the body.