Age Estimation Based on Some Cervical Vertebral Measurements in a Sample of Egyptian Children

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University,Egypt

2 Chairman& Professor of Oral Medicine, Periodontology, Radiology & Diagnosis Department, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Girls Branch.

Abstract

The need to estimate the age of living individuals becomes more frequent, because of the increasing number of immigrants (illegal or otherwise) without acceptable identification documents and with missing or uncertain birth dates. In the recent years, evaluation of cervical vertebrae has been increasingly used to determine skeletal maturation. Aim:The aim of this study was to establish two new formulae for objectively evaluatingskeletal maturation of cervical vertebrae inmale and female Egyptianchildren usinglateral cephalometric radiographs. Methods: The cases were selected from patients attending the clinics of the Faculty of Dental Medicine for girls, Al Azhar University, in Cairo. They were assessed into two groups. The first groupincluded 100 children; 50 males (aging from 8.45 to 15.75 years oldwith a mean age of12.41years) and 50 females (aging from 8.2 to 15.5 years oldwith a mean age of 11.9 years). The cervical vertebral bodies of C3 and C4were traced and measured.Regression formulae were developed to determinecervical vertebral bone age. The second group of lateral cephalometric and hand-wrist radiographs of 50 children; 25 males (aging from 8.25 to 15.85 years old with a mean age of 11.7 years) and 25 females (aging from 8.5 to 15.65 years old with a mean age of 12.12years) was used to verify the reliabilityof these developed regression formulae.Results:The results indicated that there was a statistical significant positive correlation between estimated cervical vertebral bone age (CVBA) and chronological age (r = 0.976 in males and 0.931 in females). Also there was a statistical significant positive correlation between estimated cervical vertebral bone age (CVBA) and estimated hand bone age (HBA) (r = 0.960 in males and 0.942 in females). Conclusion: These results suggest that cervical vertebral bone age reflects skeletal maturity because it approximates hand bone age, which is considered to be the most reliable method for evaluating skeletal maturation. Using cervical vertebral bone age may be helpful to estimate age in a detailed and objective manner on cephalometric radiographsforEgyptian children.