Establishment of Cervical Vertebral Bone Age Based on Pattern Matching Method

本研究的目的是建立一个“颈椎骨龄”（VA）的成熟度指标，并设计一个公式，预测下颌骨的生长与VA。首先，使用200个头影测量X线片的7至15岁的女性，头影测量X线片的第三和第四颈椎的八个参数。通过这些参数的比例测量，采用多元回归公式计算VA。计算公式为：VA=0.80+6.05×3 ~ 4<rd>椎体前高（AH）/前后长（AP）+9.63 × 4 ~ 4<th>椎体AH/AP。腕关节X线片VA与骨龄（Tanner-Whitehouse 2法）的相关系数高于VA与实际年龄的相关系数。相关系数差异有显著性（p&lt;0.05）。VA被认为是有用的生理年龄指标。第三，下颌骨生长的预测进行了检查。对21例女性患者在初次检查时（7-12岁）和末次检查时（17岁以上）测量下颌骨长度（Cd-Gn），并在初次检查时计算VA。公式为：下颌骨生长势=-2.63+36.85× VA。最后，对基于腕关节X线片的骨龄自动推断进行了初步研究。应用模式匹配方法。结果表明，该方法可用于VA。

The purpose of this study was to establish a "cervical vertebrae bone age" (VA) as maturity indicator and design a formula to predict mandibular growth using VA.First, using 200 cephalometric radiographs for females between 7 and 15 years of age, the eight parameters on third and forth cervical vertebrae of cephalometric radiographs were measured. Multiple regression formula was used to calculate VA by using the proportional measurements of these parameters. The formula was as follows : VA=0.80+6.05×3^<rd> vertebral anterior height (AH)/antero-posterior length (AP)+9.63×4^<th> vertebral AH/APNext, by using another set of materials (66 females between 8 and 13 years of age), the reliability of this formula was estimated. Correlation coefficient between VA and bone age (Tanner-Whitehouse 2 method) using hand wrist X-ray films was higher than the correlation between VA and chronological age. Difference of these correlation coefficients was significant (p<0.05). VA was found to be useful as physiological age indication.Third, prediction of mandibular growth was examined. The mandibular length (Cd-Gn) of 21 females were measured on both initial examination (7-12 years of age) and last examination (over 17 years), and VA was calculated on initial examination. The formula was as follows : Growth potential of the mandible=-2.63+36.85×VALastly, automatic estimation of skeletal age based on hand-wrist radiographs was examined as the preliminary study. The pattern matching method was applied. It was confirmed that this method could be applied to VA.