Evaluation of the degree of fusion of midpalatal suture at various stages of cervical vertebrae maturation

Abstract

Introduction: Rapid palatal expansion was initially done during circumpubertal age. However, the correct evidence suggests visualizing the patency of midpalatal suture (MPS) radiologically at different chronological age as there can be early or late fusion of suture in some cases. Objective: This study was aimed at assessing the fusion of MPS at different stages of cervical vertebrae maturation and to find any correlation between them from the patients of two South Indian districts. Design and Setting: A total of 144 subjects aged 10–20 years were included in our study. Materials and Methods: Skeletal age based on cervical vertebrae was assessed from lateral cephalograms. MPS staging was done by two observers using cone-beam computed tomography at 2-time intervals. Inter- and intra- examiner reliability for suture staging was analyzed by kappa statistics. Correlation of skeletal age to sutural maturation was done using Kendall’s tau-b test. Results: A fair agreement was obtained by kappa test for inter (0.313) and intraexaminer reliability (0.219 for first and 0.451 for the second observer) for 144 subjects. Kendall’s tau-b test showed a significant correlation between skeletal age and suture maturation, with the maximum association between CS 4 skeletal age and Stage C of MPS, with P < 0.001. Conclusion: A strong correlation was found between skeletal age and sutural fusion. Predominantly, Stage C coincided with CS 4 with greater gender predilection toward females.