فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: Prediction of skeletal growth is necessary for growth modification and surgical orthodontic treatments and is usually done by assessing skeletal maturity indicators in hand-wrist radiographs. The use of growth stages of cervical vertebrae in lateral cephalograms has been suggested to avoid overexposure. Objectives: This study seeks to assess the degree of agreement between hand-wrist and cervical vertebrae maturation stages for skeletal age determination and prediction of the peak growth spurt (PGS). Results: In all age groups, the skeletal maturity stages of the hand and wrist bones and the cervical vertebrae of the girls were ahead of the boys. Cohen’s kappa test revealed a low level of agreement between the two methods [Kappa (95% CI) = 0.312 (0.290 - 0.377)]; concordance was slightly higher in males (K = 0.33 for males versus 0.27 for females). Evaluation of concordance coefficients between the stages determined by the two methods indicated the highest concordance in 8- and 9-year-olds and the lowest in 12- and 14-year-olds. The level of agreement between the two methods was only acceptable in 8- and 9-year-olds of both genders and 10-year-old boys. The level of agreement between the two methods in other age groups was not acceptable. Conclusion: The level of agreement between the two methods was low; thus, they cannot be used alternatively to estimate patients’ skeletal age or to predict the PGS. This may be due to the effect of different maturation levels (influenced by the environment, ethnicity, and gender) on the agreement between methods for skeletal age determination.