Evaluation of Cervical Vertebral Maturation Angular Measurements as a Tool to Assess Skeletal Maturity: A Radiological Study

AIM: The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the comparison between the Skeletal Maturation phases of Fishman’s hand–wrist skeletal maturation index (SMI) and cervical vertebral maturation angle (CVMA). METHODOLOGY: Assessment and comparison of Skeletal Maturation utilizing the hand–wrist bone radiograph by Fishman’s system of skeletal maturation indicator (SMI), cervical vertebra maturation stages (CVMS), and lateral cephalogram by cervical vertebral maturation angle (CVMA) conducted on 150 subjects (75 male and 75 female). Chi-square was used to reveal the significance of study parameters on a categorical scale between SMI, CVMS, CVMA, and multiple regression analysis conducted to envisage the connotation of the dependent variable. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis models exhibited 61.9% of the variance for CVMA with autonomous variables. In multiple regression analysis, there is no substantial association (P > 0.05) between age and CVMA. The correlation of SMI and CVMA values utilizing Pearson’s correlation coefficient for males and females presented positive association with R value of 0.801 for males and 0.834 for females and a P value of < 0.001. CONCLUSION: As compared to other maturity indicators like hand and wrist, cervical vertebral angular measurements were reliable enough for assessing the degree of skeletal maturation.