Skeletal maturation in patients with cleft lip and palate and normal population analyzed by CVM analysis and the fusion of sphenooccipital synchondrosis.

Objective: The Cervical Vertebral Maturation(CVM) of normal population and cleft lip and palate population was measured by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The fusion of sphenooccipital synchondrosis(SOS)was staged, and the correlation between CVM and SOS fusion staging was analyzed. The reliability of CVM in the diagnosis of SOS joint staging provides some reference for clinical evaluation of the growth and development stage of patients.

Methods: 100 patients with cleft lip and palate and 100 normal people were randomly selected from January 2020 to December 2023 in Guiyang Stomatological Hospital. There were 121 males and 79 females. The CBCT data of patients were imported into Dolphin software to complete three-dimensional reconstruction and CVM measurement as well as SOS fusion for staging. The experimental results were statistically analyzed by software SPSS25 0.0. The correlation between CVM and SOS fusion staging was analyzed by Spearman analysis. The reliability of CVM diagnosis of SOS fusion staging was calculated by positive likelihood ratio (PositiveLikelihoodRatio,LR+).

Results: Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the consistency of CVM and SOS fusion staging. The results are as follows: 1. The correlation between CVM staging and SOS fusion staging and age was studied in normal group A: male group and female group. The results showed that the two staging methods were highly correlated. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient between CVM staging and SOS fusion stage was 0.922. (p < 0. 01). The correlation coefficient of Spearman grade between SOS fusion degree and age was 0. 842 (p < 0 0.01). 2. Group B: the correlation coefficient of Spearman grade between CVM stage and age was 0.781 (p < 0 0.01). The correlation coefficient of Spearman grade between the fusion degree of SOS and age was 0.765 (p < 0 0.01). Study on the reliability of CVM in the diagnosis of cranial base suture maturity: in group A, CVM1 could diagnose SOS fusion stage 1, CVM2 could diagnose SOS fusion stage 2, CVM3 could diagnose SOS fusion degree 3, CVM4 could diagnose SOS fusion degree 4, while in group B, CVM2 diagnosed SOS fusion stage 3, CVM3 and CVM4 diagnosed SOS fusion stage 4. It can be seen that the degree of CVM and SOS fusion in group B is later than that in group A.

Conclusion: CVM staging and SOS fusion staging in cleft lip and palate patients were later than those in normal subjects. In normal people and cleft lip and palate people, CVM stage was highly correlated with the degree of SOS fusion, and gradually fused with the increase of age, female SOS fusion earlier than male.In the normal population, there is a clear correlation between CVM (Cervical Vertebral Maturation) stages and the fusion stages of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis. This standardized diagnostic criterion provides important clinical reference for determining orthodontic treatment timing or surgical intervention. However, the situation differs in individuals with cleft lip and palate, as this population may exhibit overall delayed or abnormal skeletal development patterns, making them unsuitable for application of general standards.If accurate discrimination of age is needed, it needs to be confirmed by auxiliary diagnostic methods.