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”（颈椎骨龄）作为成熟指标，并设计一个用VA预测下颌生长的公式。首先，利用200张7 ~ 15岁女性的头颅x线片，测量了头颅x线片上第三、第四颈椎的8个参数。利用这些参数的比例测量值，采用多元回归公式计算VA。公式为：VA=0.80+6.05×3^<rd>椎体前高度(AH)/前后长度(AP)+9.63×4^<th>椎体AH/ ap接下来，利用另一组资料（66例8 ~ 13岁的女性），对公式的可靠性进行估计。腕部x线片VA与骨龄的相关系数（Tanner-Whitehouse 2法）高于VA与实足年龄的相关性。相关系数差异有统计学意义（p<0.05）。VA被发现是有用的生理年龄指示。第三，对下颌生长进行预测。21例女性患者在初检（7-12岁）和末检（17岁以上）时分别测量下颌长度（Cd-Gn），并在初检时计算VA。计算公式为：下颌骨生长势=-2.63+36.85×VALastly，初步研究基于腕手x线片自动估计骨骼年龄。采用模式匹配方法。结果表明，该方法可应用于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.