Cervical vertebrae morphology is used in planning orthodontic patients’ treatment for assessing skeletal maturation. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between chronological age and Cervical Vertebral Maturation (CVM) stages. In this descriptive-analytical study, 320 lateral cephalograms over an age range of 7-15 years (160 boys and 160 girls) were investigated in the city of Babol, Iran. The subjects were divided into eight age groups. The Baccetti modified version of CVM method was used for the assessment. The assessment consisted of visual analysis of morphological characteristics of the three cervical vertebrae (C2, C3, C4). Data analysis was done using SPSS (version 20) software. P≤0.05 was considered significant. The spearman correlation coefficient between chronological age and cervical vertebral maturation stages was 0.841 (P<0.001) in total sample size, 0.839 (P<0.001) in boys and 0.873 (P<0.001) in girls. The positive likelihood ratio for detecting cervical vertebral stages was low in all age groups; except for age range of 7-8 in boys and girls, and age ranges of 8-10 and 14-15 in the girls. The results of this study demonstrated that the CVM method is reliable for the determination of onset of puberty and despite the high correlation coefficient between chronological age and cervical vertebral maturation stages, the low positive likelihood ratio in most age groups results that the chronological age is a poor indicator for detecting maturation stages.

Changes in the cervical spine curvature leads to increased shear force and compression stress on cervical spine and axial loading in different cervical segments. The objective of this study was to compare the general and segmental curvature in the upper and lower cervical spine of women with postural neck pain and Forward Head Posture (FHP), women without neck pain but with FHP and healthy women.
Material and 45 women were divided into three groups: 15 women with postural neck pain and FHP, 15 women without neck pain but with FHP and 15 healthy women. Photography was used to assess neck posture while cervical spine curvature was measured using fluoroscopy imaging and the Harrison Tangent method.
There was no significant difference in general and segmental lordosis in the three groups (P>0.05). Despite the lack of significant difference, the results showed that the segmental lordosis in C5-C6 and C6-C7 segments was decreased in patients with cervical pain and FHP and women without cervical pain but with FHP while segmental lordosis in C3-C4 had increased in patients with cervical pain and FHP.
The general and segmental cervical lordosis may be altered in women with postural neck pain and women with FHP. More studies are needed to investigate the effect of neck pain and head posture on cervical spine segmental lordosis.

In order to study the cervical curvature in forward head posture compared to healthy people, 300 students of Razi University (150 males and 150 females) were randomly selected. They were evaluated and screened by the use of PPV (Posture Pro V) software. Finally 14 students with forward head posture (with 23±2.32 years old and 163±4.6 cm height) and 14 healthy students without forward head posture (with 22.8±2.35 years old and 171.64±6.8 cm height) were selected who with great satisfaction participated in other phases of the research. In this descriptive study of cervical curvature, cervical spines were radiographed from lateral view and then evaluated for anterior head transition (AHT), cervical lordosis (C2-C7), and superior cervical curvature (C1-C2) were meticulously evaluated. Mean differences of healthy and FHP subject’s variables were analyzed with independent t-test. For analyzing the relationships between variables, Pearson’s coefficient of correlation was used at p<0.05. The results showed that: 1. there are significant differences between cervical lordosis, anterior head transition, and amounts of overload on cervical spines among two groups, but the differences of superior cervical curvature’s amount are not significant. 2. FHP has a significant relationship with AHT and cervical lordosis. A significant relationship also exists between AHT and amounts of overload on cervical spines, but FHP and cervical curvatures were not significantly related. There also exists a weak relationship between cervical curvatures and lordosis which is not significant. The results revealed that FHP causes cervical kyphosis and an extreme forward head position may cause an S-form curvature which is due to decreasing inferior cervical spine curvature and increasing superior cervical spine curvature. In this situation, in fact, inferior muscles of neck’s anterior are shortened and the superior portion of muscles is stretched. On the other hand, posterior inferior muscles of neck are stretched and in the extreme cases, superior muscles of neck are shortened. With this in mind, it can be declared that the forward head posture can cause a decrease in normal lordosis and occurrence of cervical kyphosis.

Statement of Problem: Evaluation of skeletal growth which is necessary in growth modification and orthognathic surgery is usually done by using skeletal maturity indicators of hand and wrist radiographs. The use of growth stages of cervical vertebrae seen in lateral cephalometrics films currently has been suggested to avoid over exposure. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the degree of agreement between hand and wrist bones developmental stages and cervical vertebral maturation stages. The subjects of this cross-sectional study consisted 58 females and 61 males ranging from 8 to 17 years old divided into 10 groups. A total of 119 hand, wrist and lateral cephalometry radiographs were obtained and analyzed. The hand and wrist radiographs were evaluated according to the Fishman system, which uses four stages of bone maturation found at six sites located on thumb, third finger, fifth finger and radius. Cervical vertebral maturation was determined from lateral cephalometry radiographs based on a system developed by Hassel and Farman. In all age groups, the skeletal maturity stage in the hand and wrist bones and cervical vertebrae of female subjects were ahead of male subjects. The Kappa test revealed a high degree of agreement between skeletal maturation indicator in hand and wrist bones and cervical vertebrae in all of the samples (d. of a.=0.846, p<0.001), females (d. of a.=0.791, p<0.001) and male (d. of a.=0.892, p<0.0001). The chronological conformity between 2 methods showed a high degree of agreement in all age groups except in 8 and 17 years old ages. The highest chronological agreement was seen in 15 years old age group, although the degree of agreement in 8 years old age group was low and in 17 years old age group was moderate. According to the results of this study, hand and wrist radiographs can be easily replaced by cervical vertebral maturation analysis for evaluation of skeletal developmental stage.

Timing is an important factor in orthodontic treatment planning. Skeletal age is a standard indicator for determining optimum time for treatment. On the other hand, in clinic the phases of the dentition (deciduous, early and late mixed, permanent) have often been used for treatment timing, investigations of the different outcomes of treatment protocols at earlier vs later stages of development. Considering the importance of this issue and to evaluate it in the Iranian adolescents, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation between clinical phases of dental eruption and the skeletal maturity stages by cervical vertebrae method (CVM). Panoramic radiographs and lateral cephalograms of 100 boys and 100 girls were used. For determination of the Phases of dentition, Vander Linden method and for the skeletal maturity, CVM were used. The relationship between the skeletal maturity (stages in CVM) and the phases of the dentition was evaluated statistically by means of indicators of diagnostic tests and spearman’s rho analysis. Spearman’s rho analysis indicated a relatively strong correlation of 0.775 (P<0.001); The early mixed dentition phase was a valid indicator of prepubertal stage (CS1), but the late mixed and early permanent dentitions were not valid indicators for the diagnosis of the onset of the pubertal growth spurt (CS3). In comparison with a reliable indicator of skeletal maturity (CVM), the dentition phases perform poorly in the detection of the onset of the pubertal spurt in skeletal growth. Key words: Phases of dental eruption, skeletal maturity, CVM.

The variations of vertebral artery are important with regard to their potential clinical impact. The study reports the variation of course of right vertebral artery in male cadaver. The vertebral arteries arise from the superioposterior aspect of the first part of subclavian artery. The vessel takes a vertical course to enter into the transverse foramen of sixth cervical vertebra. Right vertebral artery in its course in the neck ascends between the carotid sheath and prevertebral fascia. But in this case right vertebral artery at level of C3 pierced the prevertebral fascia to reach the transverse foramen of C3. The length of this part is longer than normal size but its lumen was normal. In international literature the incidence of vertebral artery passing through C3 transverse foramen is seen in approximately 0.2% of the studied population. No anthropometric parameter has shown this case in Iran.

Evaluation of skeletal age and determination of growth status had important and special roie in orthodontic treatment planning (such as functional orthopedic treatment and orthognatic surgery) and also in stability of it. There were several biologic indicators for the detection of the peak in mandibular growth. Due to the limitations of biological indicators application, idea of new indicators was seemed importantly. Cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) method is one of them. At first the detection of the peak in mandibular growth was based on the analysis of the second through sixth cervical vertebrae in six developmental stages. But a few improvements of the original CVM analysis were still needed. In this method, the peak in mandibular growth was determined based on the analysis of the second through fourth cervical vertebrae in five developmental stages. This method is easy, applicable and more valid than hand-wrist analysis method.

Wear and failure in inter-vertebral discs and facet joints with certain radiographical properties are called “cervical spondilosis”. The aim of this study was to evaluate the surgical results of neck spondiloarthrophaty. A cross-sectional study was done on 75 patients (40 male, 35 female) with neck spondiloarthropathy referring to two hospitals in Ardebil-Iran from 2008 to 2012. The mean age of patients was 52.3±14.4 years old. A part of data was extracted from patient’s files and another part was gathered by telephone call. The data was analyzed by statistical methods. Improvement of neurological symptoms and patient satisfaction were measured with “Visual analogue scale” (VAS) and Odom scale. The majority received anterior surgery and “cage” implantation (89.3%) and 8 (10.7%) of patients received posterior release and fusion. 43% of patients were highly satisfied. Maximum involvement level in 33 cases (44%) was C5- C6 level. High level of satisfaction and improvement in early stage is possible in cervical spondyloarthropathy surgery.