[Clinical survey of the association between age and maturation of cervical vertebra in 216 adolescents in Shanghai municipality].

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between age and maturation of cervical vertebra in 216 adolescents in Shanghai municipality. METHODS: 216 adolescents from 10 to 20 years old were investigated by lateral cephalometric radiographs. The growth status and the relationship of C2- C5 cervical vertebra were evaluated by SAS 6.12 software package with Fisher's test. RESULTS: The shapes of cervical vertebra bodies varied in regular manner. Although female went into the young quick growing period 2 years earlier than male, the shape changes had no significant difference between gender.The beginning and the peak of the puberty spurt was with great individual diversity. CONCLUSION: The morphological variation of cervical vertebra can be used as an indicator of skeletal age to determine adolescents' growth and development status.