Correlation between the maturation stages of the midpalatal suture and the maturation of the cervical vertebrae
Orthodontics, Cervical vertebrae, Growth and development, Diagnosis, Cone beam computed tomography.
Introduction: A correlation between both the maturation stages of midpalatal suture (MPSM) and cervical vertebrae (CVM) would allow predicting the success of rapid maxillary expansion by means of lateral cephalograms. Objective: To correlate MPSM stages with CVM stages using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Material and methods: A total of 195 CBCTs of skull of individuals of both sexes aged over 5 years old will be analyzed. The CBCT exams will be collected from the documentation file of Clínica Radiologia Odontológica Conceito, located at Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. An examiner will withhold the personal informations of patients and randomly assign the CBCT exams based on an electronically generated numerical sequence. Two other previously calibrated examiners will blindly and independently perform the subjective assessment of MPSM and CVM in each CBCT exam. For this, initially, standardization of head position of participants will be carried out in the CBCT exams. The MPSM stage will be assessed by observing the maxilla in the axial view. Depending on the anatomy of the midpalatal suture, maturation will be classified as A, B, C, D or E. On the other hand, the CVM stage will be assessed in the sagittal view of the cervical vertebrae. Depending on the morphology of C2, C3 and C4 vertebrae, maturation will be classified as stage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The intra and interexaminer reliabilities will be analyzed using the Kendall’s Concordance Coefficient. On the other hand, correlation between the maturation stage of the palatal suture, the stage of maturation of the cervical vertebrae and age will be performed using the Spearman Correlation Test.